I , 



WTi- 






../ 



AMERICANISM 

By 
GEORGE B. LOCKWOOD 



With a compilation, by John T. Adams, 
of utterances on Americanism by great 
Americans. / 



1921 

THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN PUBLISHING CO, 

WASHINGTON 






Copyright, 1921 
By George B. Lockwood 



/ 
JUL 14 '21 

C^aA822017 ^ 



INTRODUCTORY 

The American people have short memories. That is but nat- 
ural. As history is measured, the United States is but a youth, 
and, as befits normal youth, self-sufficient and self-reliant, we have 
had little desire or need of dwelling- upon the past. America has 
been busy dreaming and thinking of the moiTow, with its duties 
and opportunities; busy exploring, settling and developing a new 
continent; engaged in construction rather than reflection. As a 
nation, we inherited no racial enmities or religious antipathies 
which made it natural to keep alive the memories of ancient 
grudges or necessary to appeal to ancient fears in order to main- 
tain our national unity. 

This was not accidental. "There is a divinity which shapes 
our ends" and orders the destinies of nations. It was necessary to 
our establishment as a nation, to the sturdy, healthy development 
of oiir institutions that we be free to work out our problems, unin- 
fluenced and unfettered by old prejudices and hatreds. It was 
necessary that our fathers wholly discard the institutions and 
practices of European civilization, gi'own fetid, and model Amer- 
ica's government along wholly new and wholesome lines. 

But now we are developed physically ; our frontiers have disap- 
peared. We are developed politically; our institutions are firmly 
established and our national unity and solidarity tested and proved. 
America has reached maturity, that age when its future is served 
better by caution than by daring, and the interests and welfare 
of its citizens promoted better JDy holding fast to that which has 
proved true and enduring than by experimenting with the novel 
and untried. 

At various times in our national life there have come testing 
periods when, standing at the parting of the ways, the people 
have been called upon to choose between keeping the faith of 
their fathers and following tlie call of visionaries and the self- 
seeking ambitious. America has just passed through such a 
crisis. It was providential that, in the hour when our citizenry 
were called upon to make their decision, there were stalwart Amer- 
icans who fearlessly and vigorously protested against repudiating 
the advice of those who laid the foundations of this republic, who 
were neither ashamed nor afraid to preach America and American- 
ism first, who admonished their countrymen that American insti- 
tutions could be preserved only by undivided devotion to the same 



INTRODUCTORY 

principles which operated to upbuild these institutions and give 
them streng-th and stability, and who, above all else, warned Amer- 
icans ag-ainst accepting the doctrine of internationalism in the 
delusion they were acquiring a "new freedom." To substitute 
internationalism for American nationalism and style it "new free- 
dom" is on all fours with substituting free love for the institution 
of marriage and calling it the new virtue. There are some things 
which are fundamental and absolute. 

One of the most potent and most fearless advocates of straight 
old-fashioned Americanism during that crisis was The National 
Republican, under the editorship of George B. Lockwood. Upon 
the establishment of its offices in Washington in January, 1918, — 
a year before President Wilson's political tour of Europe, — The 
National Republican announced as one of its editorial policies, — 
"championship of stalwart, unwavering Americanism * * * which 
is for America first, last and all the time and would sacrifice no 
just interest of the American people in behalf of any visionary 
scheme of internationalism." On February 9, 1918, there ap- 
peared the editorial, "What Are We Fighting for in This War?"; 
June 22, 1918, the editorial, "The Aims of America Need No 
Explanation or Apology"; July 13, 1918, the editorial, "Settling 
the Terms of Peace"; all of which are reprinted in this volume. 
These, and many other contemporary editorials and articles in its 
news columns, entitle The National Republican to the credit and 
honor of being the first publication of national circulation, and, 
perhaps, the first publication of any kind in the United States to 
take an unequivocal stand against the menace of internationalism 
and to maintain that stand aggressively until the fight for Amer- 
icanism was won. 

For a time, The National Republican stood alone, among publica- 
tions of national circulation, in its position. To The National 
Republican, with a circulation rising from 200,000 when the fight 
against the Wilson internationalism began to nearly a half million 
before the close of the campaign of 1920, more than to any otlier 
one influence, must be given the credit of arousing the masses 
and leaders of its party to a realization of the calamitous possi- 
bilities of such a program. In view of what transpired during 
the life of the Congress elected in November, 1918, the value of 
this, its service in behalf of Americanism, was incalculable. 

So far as the records show. The National Republican's editorial 
of July 13, 1918, "Settling the Terms of Peace," was the first 
utterance by a publication of national circulation in opposition to 
the United States' being a party to any treaty of peace which 
would include certain terms and conditions which President Wilson 
had indicated (even at that early date, four months before the 
signing of the armistice) he would write into the treaty. This 
is the first utterance of record that there must be "certain reser- 
vations," safeguarding American rights and privileges, to such 

IV 



INTRODUCTORY 

a treaty as the White House had intimated and for which it was, 
even before the war was won or certain of being won, conducting 
a nation-wide propaganda. This also was the first utterance to 
point out the sinister possibilities of the Wilsonian doctrine of 
"self-determination," the inclusion of which in the treaty has 
kept all Europe and the Near East in an armed ferment and bloody 
wars ever since the treaty was signed. 

Attention should be called to another editorial, "A Decisive 
Peace — That Is What Is Desired by the American People," pub- 
lished a month before the armistice. It was a protest against 
the "peace by negotiation" obsession of the Wilson administra- 
tion, a demand that Germany be decisively defeated on the field 
of battle, her armies crushed, her surrender unconditional and 
our soldiers brought home "rather than to start a long peace 
parley with the world still an armed camp." Public opinion of 
America and Europe today is agreed that the crowning mistake of 
the allies was failure to do that very thing. 

These editorials are cited because they were pioneers. They 
were written before public opinion was crystallized, at a time when 
nearly every public expression was antagonistic to or skeptical of 
the sentiments they expressed. Moreover, they were written and 
published at a time when every fair means and foul was being 
used by the Wilson administration to muzzle free speech and put 
in irons the freedom of the press. Few and courageous were the 
publications during those days which dared stand their ground 
and defy the official blackjacking, intimidation and vengeful prose- 
cution that was the lot of those who insisted that free speech and 
a free press were inalienable American rights that could not be 
suspended to serve the pui-poses of plotting partisanship or to fur- 
nish a wider field for the publicity efforts of a few fawning satel- 
lites who, "drest with a little brief authority," sought to make a 
rubber stamp of every medium of public expression. 

The general public has had only intimations of that most dis- 
graceful chapter of America's war history. Only the publishing 
world realizes its full shame; of how the vast powers granted by 
the Congress to the administration, to enable it to win the war 
and save free institutions, were twisted and prostituted into a 
weapon to suppress the institutions of free speech and free press, 
lose the war by a compromising peace and perpetuate a partisan 
administration which, maddened by a lust for world power, was 
plotting to substitute internationalism for American nationalism 
and was craftily planning to force the United States to agree to 
a treaty which would renounce American doctrines and American 
institutions and dissolve them in the pool of an international league 
which, officered by its proposer and author and his retinue, should 
rule the world. Publications which refused to carry this propa- 
ganda, or had the temerity to criticize it, were threatened with 



INTRODUCTORY 

loss of their mailing privileges, with being classified as treason- 
able and prosecuted, with being denied paper, fuel and light with 
which to operate their enterprises. Here and there these threats 
were put in execution to strike teri'or to those who showed signs 
of independence. It was in such a period and under such condi- 
tions that The National Republican began its fight for the preser- 
vation of American institutions and keeping faith with those 
fundamental principles which made possible these institutions. 
Surely it took courage and high sense of patriotism thus to put its 
destiny to the touch. 

Nor did The National Republican swerve from the policy thus 
fearlessly launched or slacken its vigor. The collection of edito- 
rials in this volume, covering the critical period of the Peace 
Conference in Paris, the treaty debates in the United States Sen- 
ate and the "solemn referendum" of the presidential campaign of 
1920, is as complete, logical and forceful a presentation of the 
reasons which determined the American Senate and the American 
people to reject the Paris treaty as has been compiled. They 
were written during the heat of the great controversy between 
Americanism and internationalism, when public opinion was still 
molten and so they caught and reflected the flaming spirit of the 
American people during that critical period. Yet, viewed in cold 
perspective, they ring true; events have marshalled and are mar- 
shalling in support of them instead of to their confusion and con- 
futation. 

The worth of this volume is greatly enhanced by the inclusion 
of quotations upon the subject of Americanism from the speeches 
and writings of America's greatest statesmen, orators and authors, 
from the earliest days of our republic down to the present day. 
This is by far the most complete collection of "Americanisms" 
yet made, and for it the readers are indebted to Hon. John T. 
Adams, of Dubuque, Iowa. Mr. Adams is a student of American 
history and an authority on the subject, and possesses one of the 
finest private American historical libraries in the country. His 
collaboration in the issuance of this book on Americanism is espe- 
cially apropos because during the period covered by the editorials 
contained in this volume, he was an ardent supporter and wise 
counsellor of The National Republican in its militant support of 
American institutions and traditions. 

These editorials by Mr. Lockwood and compilation of "American- 
isms" by Mr. Adams are published "lest we forget." They call 
the people's attention to the landmarks of national safety and 
sanity. They emphasize by iteration and reiteration the funda- 
mental principles of this government, enunciated by the statesmen 
who founded it and espoused by everj^ statesman since who has 
contributed aught of value toward the development of the nation, 
the unity of its people and the stability and perpetuity of its 

VI 



INTRODUCTORY 

institutions. America has reached the age when she should take 
counsel of her memory and keep ever in mind the advice of those 
who wrought in thought and deed and sacrifice to bring her to 
her high station, safeguard her liberties and make her ideals and 
institutions enduring throughout mortal time. 

The fight for the preservation of American independence, ideals 
and institutions is not over. Already an organized efi'ort is being 
put forth to galvanize the Wilson internationalism into life and to 
apotheosize its author. Sedulously and systematically the motives 
underlying the opposition to the Versailles treaty and covenant 
are being misrepresented. The history of the proceedings which 
terminated in the repudiation of President Wilson's international 
policies at the polls in 1920 is being mis-written by partisan press 
agents of the leadership repudiated so overwhelmingly by the 
American electorate. It seems well that at such a time the facts 
and arguments arrayed in opposition to this program of de-nation- 
alization, so admirably set forth in this volume, should be put 
forth in permanent form. 

J. BENNETT GORDON. 



VII 



AMERICANISM 

A Neglected Solution of World Problems 

Americanism is not merely loyalty to a land or fealty to a flag. 
It is that, but it is more than that. Americanism, in the deepest 
sense of the term, is devotion to ideas and ideals of which our re- 
public is distinctively the exemplar and exponent. The American 
republic came into being; as an expression of new principles and 
pui-poses in government. Americanism is something more than 
Europeanism transplanted to a new continent. The Am.erican 
Revolution was fought, not merely to secure release from British 
control, but to free America from Eui'opean influence and entangle- 
ment. This thought was expressed often by the founders of the 
nation ; by Washington, whose Farevrell Address is an admonition 
to America to keep he)-self disentangled from the European polit- 
ical system; by Jefferson, whose zeal for an American quarantine 
against the fundamental European conceptions of government was 
so gxeat that he expressed the wish that the Atlantic Ocean were 
a sea of fire ; by Monroe, who in his announcement of the doctrine 
that Europe rauiit not use the Americas as a basis for the opera- 
tions of the European system, only gave expression to a thought 
that was common to all the sages, soldiers, statesmen who "brought 
forth upon this continent a new nation." These men constituted 
the greatest galaxy of greatness that ever blazed in the horizon 
of a nation's life. 

The European conception of government is that the citizen is a 
creature of the state; the American conception, that the state is 
the creature of the citizen. European institutions were gi'adually 
being liberalized before the American Revolution, it is true; but 
the struggle for larger indi\iduai freedom was against the intel- 
lectual and political inheritance of centuries, — "the rotten survivals 
of by-gone circumstances." The progress was slow from the con- 
dition in which the serf belonged to the land, the land to the noble, 
and the noble to the king. But in this new land the citizen wiested 
the soil from the savage, and by his own strength made conquest 
of the v/ilderness. A state which assumed to govern witiiout his 
consent v/as so far out of harmony v/ith American environment 
that its continuance, or that of any government based upon such 
a conception of the relation of the government to tlie individual, 
was impossible. The Revolution came to pass not from the imme- 
diate causes assigned by the revolting colonists, but because the 



AMERICANISM ' • 

time had come for Americans to throw off the misfit garments of 
a Europeanism tliey had outgrown. 

So we find the Declaration of Independence declaring that gov- 
ernments exist for the preservation of the unalienable rights of 
men; that governments derive their just powers from the consent 
of the governed ; that when a government ceases to serve the pub- 
lic welfare, it is the right of the people to overthrow it "and to in- 
stitute new government, laying its foundations on such principles, 
and organizing its pov^er in such form, as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their safety and happiness." 

American institutional development is not merely a chapter in 
European political history; it is a new chapter in world history. 
The influence of European political conceptions and ideals upon 
American civilization, has been less marked during the last century 
and a half than the influence of American declaration and example 
upon European civilization, reflected not merely in the rapid spread 
of the republican form of government, but in the popularizing of 
political institutions in nations v/hich have clung to monarchical 
forms of government. 

The greatness of the men who founded the American republic 
was evidenced not more by the boldness and ability with which 
they announced to the world the new principle upon which they 
based their determination to cut free from Europe, or the courage 
and capacity with which independence was achieved by arms and 
diplomacy, than in the wisdom, which seems inspired, with which 
they fashioned the institutions of their new government. At a 
time when the air was filled with the sophistries of demagogues 
and doctrinaires, prophets of the political millennium to be brought 
about merely by Utopian systems of government; within a few 
years of the time wiien a revolution in one of the most enlightened 
of European nations w^as accompanied by the same orgy of mur- 
der and rapine which has blackened the record of Russia since the 
downfall of the old autocracy, they created a frame of government 
which the most eminent of modern English statesmen has called 
"the greatest work struck off at a given time by the hand and 
brain of man." As Lowell said, referring to the rejection of uto- 
pianism by the founding fathers : 

"Herein they were great, — 

"That they conceived a deeper rooted state. * * * 

"And more devoutly prized 

"Than all perfection theorized 

"The more imperfect, that had roots, and grew." 

The system of representative republican government, with its 
checks and balances, its division of authority and responsibility, 
its saf egTiards against tyranny, either of the one or of the many ; 
Its distribution of functions between national and state govern- 
ments; its independent judiciaiy, with power to stand between 



AMERICANISM 

the people and violation of theii- charter of liberties eitlter by the 
legislative or executive branches of goverilment ; its practical plan 
for federation of the constituent commonwealths ; this system is a 
monument to the political genius of the men who laid the founda- 
tions of our national governmental structure. So well has it stood 
the test of time that every suggestion of change in the system it 
has established should be subjected to the most careful scrutiny, 
in the knowledge that the men who fi'amed our national Constitu- 
tion have few prototypes in public life anywliere in the world to- 
day, and that their work, dealing as it did with fundamentals as 
old as the race, was not for the moment, but is justified todaj'' by 
the same considerations argued in its behalf in the days of Wash- 
ington. 

The American Declaration and the xA.merican Constitution were 
expressive of something more than academic doctrines as to human 
riglits. The conception of govei'nment of which they v/ere an 
expression made possible the great principle of federation which, 
vindicated in a great v/ar, has kept this nation free from the con- 
stant menace of v/ar which has been overhanging Europe during 
the entire life-time of our republic, and which, still rejected on 
the other side of the Atlantic, still keeps and will ever keep, the 
multiplied states of Europe armed to the teeth, except for the 
influence this nation may be able to exert. 

The opportunity came to our representatives at the peace con- 
ference, when it was possible to begin a reconstruction of the 
v/orld on a new basis of a peace of justice, to stand for the Ameri- 
can policy, vindicated by the successful experience of a century 
and a half, as against the European policy, discredited bj'^ centuries 
of failure. It was the peculiar misfortune of America and of the 
world that at such a time we had as our representative one who, 
typical of a class all too numerous and influential, was by reason 
of origin, environment and the scholastic associations of a lifetime, 
steeped in European conceptions of government. To the phrases 
of the new freedom Europe has been returned to the old slavery 
of a system which has left its trail of bloodshed, tyranny, poverty 
and famine through the centuries. 

In proportion as governments leave to individuals, to component 
states, to localities, the right of self control, it is possible for them 
to permanently rule over wide ai'eas and diverse elements. In 
proportion as they are autocratic, paternal, standardized, they can 
maintain control only by force over widespread areas. That gov- 
ernment which appeals to the interest of its people by service to 
the common welfare can be maintained without 'a military estab- 
lishment larger than our insignificant standing army of peace time. 
The state which governs by fear must have the backing of bay- 
onets. The state which undertakes the ownership and control of 
the people ; the exaggerated state like Germany under the Kaiser 
or Russia under Lenine; which thrusts its nose and its hand into 



AMERICANISM 

the daily life of every citizen; which undertakes to become the 
universal policeman, provider and proprietor; such a state must 
govern by fear. Government by fear is, in vaiying degrees, the 
European conception of government. Its vital principle is force. 
That principle caused the Vv^orld war, as it caused the Balkan wars 
which were the curtain raisers for the general war. It has caused 
the wars which, almost without interruption, have been progress- 
ing in the eastern hemisphere. It compelled Europe to arm to the 
teeth for the great struggle which marked the climax of this theory 
of government in world history. And that principle, through the 
failure of an American President to stand for a distinctive Ameri- 
can policy, is the cornerstone of the league of nations. To what 
extent have we been officially and unofficially refashioning our own 
government and civilization on the European model during the 
past few years ? 

Americans hear much from our apostles of European kultur. 
culture, 01" by whatever name you wish to call it, of the origin of 
our political conceptions and institutions in European history, but 
it is not often written that Great Britain's system of a federated 
empire is founded upon the philosophy of Alexander Hamilton. In 
so far as modern British government has succeeded, it is due to 
the use of that principle ; in so far as it has failed, it is due to a 
denial of that principle. If Ireland had been given years ago the 
autonomy of an American state, if the political leaders of the 
United Kingdom had applied the principle of federation rather 
than of subjugation to Ireland, it seems probable that there would 
be little more disposition to rebel against British authority in Ire- 
land than there is in the Dominion of Canada. 

The American principle of federation, made possible through 
limitations of governmental power, is expressed in the national 
motto: "Out of m.any, one." Out of many states, one Union; out 
of many races, religions, nationalities, one people. Through that 
principle a continental domain is governed; more remarkable still, 
through it, homogeneity of the very elements which in Europe are 
at continual war with one another is achieved. Europe is a crazy 
quilt of nationalities, necessarily conflicting, because in most cases 
insufficient in territory, resources or population to be economically 
independent. Naturally enough the World war started in the Bal- 
kans, where "self determination of peoples" had been carried to 
the limit in the creation of small nations reaching out from sheer 
necessity for the land and materials of their neighbors, and played, 
one against another, by greater powers each anxious to exploit 
these dependent goveraments having the shadow, rather than the 
substance, of independent nationality. The principle of federation, 
as applied to the Balkan states, would in itself have prevented the 
European war, for it was through the struggle between Austria 
and Russia for dominance in Servia that the war began. Yet 
America carried to the peace conference a policy of "self deter- 



AMERICANISM 

mination of peoples," based upon European governmental concep- 
tions, which, far from fusing the smaller nations whose depend- 
ence invites the intriguing and conflict of the powers, created some 
sixteen new nations, some sixteen new causes of war. 

This spirit of separatism, originating in the thought that gov- 
ernment is a mere instrumentality of force to be used by those 
who can control it against those who cannot, has not only caused 
some fifty governments to arm against one another, but it is re- 
flected in class cleavage within these governments themselves. 
Politics is a mere arrayal of class against class, religion against 
religion, race against race, element against element, locality 
against locality. It is to this spirit of class cleavage, distinctively 
European, that bolshevism is appealing, with its promise of divi- 
sion of the fruits of despoliation. 

Assuming that it v/as America's place to lead in Europe's recon- 
struction, — and that was the theory of President Wilson, — how 
much more effective in the interests of world peace than the multi- 
plication of petty powers, would have been the creation of a United 
States of Europe, federating the Balkan states, the sixteen new 
governments, and others which mJght wish to attach themselves 
to the new v/orld power, in a United States of Europe, permitting 
each constituent power to retain its own system of local govern- 
ment, but uniting all in an economic and political union that would 
give to this new nation the status of an independent and self suffi- 
cient power. If the peace conference had adopted such a policy it 
would have followed the one course calculated to promote the peace 
of central Europe, the prosperity of western Europe and prevent 
the spread of bolshevism into the western world. To such a pov/er 
the mandatories rejected by the United States could have been 
assigned; to such a power, with its stability guaranteed by the 
other European powers, credit could safely have been extended, 
and with all causes of dispute over boundary lines, access to the 
seacoast, and similar problems of disunion eliminated, the new 
state mJght have become a working model of the success of the 
federated system the rest of Europe would in time have been 
glad to follow. 

America failed at the peace conference because Americanism was 
abandoned. The greatest opportunity that ever came to American 
leadership was missed. The Canadian representative in the as- 
sembly of the league who declared that the European war repre- 
sented the failure of European diplomacy, and that fifty thousand 
j'-ouths from the Dominion slept under the sod of Europe because 
of it, told a startling truth vv^hich should have come long before 
from the lips of an American President. The protest of Canada 
against Article X as an expression of the policy of governm.ent by 
force rather than of justice, is one which should long ago have 
been made by an American representative in the peace conference. 
The protest of the Argentine delegate at Geneva against making 



AMERICANISM 

the league of nations a meie instrumentality for serving the pur- 
poses of victorious European powers is one it should not have been 
necessary to come from South America. 

America failed at the peace conference because of the abandon- 
ment of Americanism by the man vv^ho misrepresented the United 
States in a failure so monumental that it constitutes one of the 
greatest calamities in history. To President Harding comes the 
opportunity to make the best of a most difficult situation, and to 
substitute, in so far as it is now possible, the spirit of Americanism 
for that of traditional Europeanism, in the war settlement and the 
world's reconstruction. 
—December 18, 1920. 

So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another 
produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, 
facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases 
where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one tlie 
enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in 
the quarrels and vv^ars of the latter without adequate inducement 
or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation 
of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the 
nation m^aking the concession, by unnecessarily parting with what 
ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill will, and 
a disposition to retaliate in tlie parties from whom equal privileges 
are withheld ; and it gives to ambitious, corrupted or deluded citi- 
zens (v/ho devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to 
betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country without 
odium, sometim.es even with popularity; gilding with the appear- 
ances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference 
for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or 
foolish compliance of ambition, corruption or infatujition. — George 
Washington. 

Let those gentlemen v/ho consider themselves quite too respect- 
able and decent to mingle in our elections, remember that God Al- 
mighty will hold them responsible for the manner in which they 
discharge their duty as voters. That right and privilege is not 
given to them for their benefit, or to be used at their pleasure, but 
for my benefit, for your benefit, and for the benefit of the thirty 
millions of people in the United States. If one sees an unworthy 
man go to the polls and take possession of the government, and 
he will not prevent it, if there be such a thing as future responsi- 
bility — as we all believe — that man will have something to answer 
for upon that final day when all of us must account for our acts. — 
Thomas Corvsin. 



WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR IN THIS WAR? 

Tremendous injury has been done to the American cause in this 
war by mis-statements of American justification for participation 
in it. Both by seditious a^tators and bj?- vainglorious politicians 
and press agents we have been told that we are in the war to force 
certain academic, political and economic theories on the rest of the 
world by force of arms, as Mahomet thnist his religion on Asia 
by the sword. 

No government worthy of being considered civilized would send 
its sons to the firing line to vindicate the mere political or economic 
opinions of any man, party or faction. The only cause for which 
any nation has any moral right to go to war is the necessary de- 
fense of the people's fundamental rights of person and property 
against foreign or domestic aggression. Any nation worthy of 
the people's protection must protect its people. It must make not 
only their own country, but the world in general safe for them, so 
long as they are proceeding within their rights under treaties and 
international law. 

We are in this war for one cause, and one cause only, and that 
is to make the world safe for America and Americans: to make 
the whole world understand that the nation which gratuitously 
insults and assaults our flag, or those entitled to its protection, 
must suffer the consequences which in a century and a third of 
American history always befell those v/ho attacked every Ameii- 
can by attacldng every American's flag. We are in a war of na- 
tional defense, and not of international propaganda : the claims set 
up to the contrary are mere matters of opinion, unauthorized by 
any public decision, unjustified by public opinion, and vastly harm- 
ful to the American cause. 

To insure, hereafter, that respect for American rights always 
firmly enforced by this government |3rior to that abandonment of 
national duty and responsibility in Mexico which gave Europe mis- 
takenly to understand that anyone could spit on the American flag 
who cared to do so and would find us "too proud to fight," we must 
fight the central empires to a decisive conclusion. No mere agree- 
ment to respect these rights hereafter would novv' be sufficient. 
We must make our adversaries understand that the American 
eagle still has a beak and talons. We must not only force Germany 
to recognition of our national riglits, but pull the fangs which she 
repeatedly sunk into us while we were neutrals. 

We are not animated by racial or dynastic hatred, bv trade riv- 



AMERICANISM 

airy or territorial greed. We are out for the plain, old-fashioned 
cause of American safety on sea and land which sent Decatur 
against the Barbary pirates. We do not aspire to historic immor- 
tality as arbiters of the world's destiny; our job is to work out our 
own high destiny, and a big enough job it is. We are not in the 
war to establish world-wide socialism, communism, free trade or 
internationalism ; we are in the war to beat and disarm the bully 
we are fighting and to make it impossible for this or any other 
thug hereafter to swish a club around our ears with the command 
to stand and deliver. 

If we could only dam the flood of drivel that has been let loose 
in this country to drov^oi out good old-fashioned American patriot- 
ism, and clear the whole atmosphere by a plain statement of what 
every sincere American understands we are really in the war for, 
the effect would be electrical. The people have shown their devo- 
tion to the republic; they will continue to do so; but if appealed 
to in the name of national, rather than of international and aca- 
demic ideals which are bothering the brains only of the word ar- 
tists and millennium makers and which no civilized government 
M'ould send its soldiers to fight and die for, the unified and stim- 
ulated efforts of Americans will be irresistible. 

This motto is enough : Our cause is our flag ! 
— Februaiy 9, 1918. 



cznoEZD 



Storms, in the political atmosphere, may occasionally happen, by 
the encroachments of usurpers, the corruption or intrigues of 
demagogues, or in the inspiring agonies of faction, or by the sud- 
den fury of popular frenzy ; but, with the lestraints and salutary 
influences of the allies before described, these storms will purify 
as healthfully as they often do in the physical world, and cause 
the tree of liberty, instead of falling, to strike its roots deeper. 
In this struggle the enlightened and moral possess also a power, 
auxiliary and strong, in the spirit of the age, which is not only 
with them, but onward, in everything to ameliorate or improve. 

When the struggle assumes the form of a contest with power, 
in all its subtlety, or with -undermining and corrupting wealth, 
as it sometimes may, rather than with turbulence, sedition or open 
aggression by the needy and desperate, it will be indispensable to 
employ still greater diligence; to cherish earnestness of purpose, 
resoluteness in conduct, to apply hard and constant blows to real 
abuses, rather than milk-and-water remedies, and encourage not 
only bold, free and original thinking, but determined action. — Levi 
Woodbury. 

The stability of this government and the unity of this nation 
depend solely on the cordial support and eainest loyalty of the 
people. — Ulysses S. Grant. 



THE AIMS OF AMERICA NEED NO EXPLANATION 

OR APOLOGY 

Despite all the conspicuous pronouncements to the contrary, 
altruism in American international relations is not a recent inven- 
tion. From the days of Washington this republic has maintained 
an altruistic attitude toward the rest of the world. So patent is 
this fact to any friendly student of American history that it is 
unnecessary to explain it to anyone not unfriendly, in his heart, 
to the United States of America. It is true that we have iDeen 
misrepresented by prejudiced critics abroad and prejudiced critics, 
possessed by the spirit of European provincialism and only nomin- 
ally Americans, here at home. There is only one incident in our 
history which can with any degree of justice be called a departure 
from our consistent policy of disinterested friendship for all the 
world. That is the Mexican war, which was precipitated by sec- 
tional politicians who represented not the people of any portion 
of the republic, but the old special property interest of human 
slavery which long since ceased to be a dominant factor in Ameri- 
can politics. This war was, however, an outgrowth of the rebel- 
lion of Texas against an intolerant tyranny, and viewed in the 
light of years, it cannot be said that the occupation of our Pacific 
slope by Americans was a blow to civilization. The outcom^e was 
altruistic so far as the republic is concerned, and it was a service 
of immeasurable value to those states whose status would be that 
of Lower rather than of American California if the Mexican war 
had not been fought. 

Barring this possible exception we have fought no selfish war, 
we have done no selfish thing. On the contrary we have done a 
great many things, expressive of the spirit of the American people, 
which prevents the belief on the part of anyone disposed to be 
fair with the American nation, that we have not been altruistic in 
our attitude toward our neighbors and the world in general. Vastly 
the strongest of all nations in the western hemisphere, it has been 
within our power at all times to take anything v/e wanted. We 
have used our power only to prevent land grabbing European na- 
tions, to whom we are told we must now explain our altruism, from 
seizing territory in the hemisphere. Immediately following the 
Civil war, when we had an army and navy strong enough to defeat 
any nation, we ordered France out of Mexico instead of going in, 
as many urged we should, to displace one invader with another. 



AMERICANISM 

Our attitude in China prevented tlie European nations to whom we 
are now explaining- that we have turned ovei- a new leaf and are 
now unselfish, from seizing territoi'y after the expedition of the 
allies to Pekin follov.ing the Boxer uprising-. Only the meanest 
and most prejudiced critics of the United States assume that our 
record in the Spanish-American war fails to support this theory 
of American altruism. Vv^'e did a thing" without parallel in history 
when v/e withdrew from Cuba, and when we established in Porto 
Rico and the Philippines a govenmient which blessed, rather than 
bled, the people of these dependencies, flung- by fate into our hands 
to their own infinite betterment. Hostile critics of the United 
States talk about our "taking Panama." We did nothing of the 
kind. We had no selfish puipose in Panama. We were putting 
through there a vast pi'oject not more beneficial to the United 
States than to the rest of the vvorkl, and most of all to Colombia, 
whose politicians attempted to blackmail the United States and 
inflict injuiy upon Panama while holding up the consummation of 
this great altruistic project, paid for by the people of the United 
States. 

If our history as a nation had not been marked by altiniism, no 
profession of unselfish purposes now would v/eigh against the 
record. To friends of the United States, it is unnecessary to ex- 
plain that we have no designs of territorial aggression in this war. 
To the peoples of the United States, who understand that no one 
in this country has any such thought of such a thing, such pro- 
fessions are totally unnecessary protestations of suddenly acquired 
national virtue. 

We are in this war to make the world safe for this republic; to 
pi'eserve our rights and our self respect as a nation ; to prove that 
we are neither too pioud nor too cowardly to take up arms in de- 
fense of the flag for which the soldiers of Washington, of Lincoln 
and of Mclvinley shed their blood. It is unnecessary to explain 
the altruism of our aims either to our allies or our enemies. Only 
one thing counts nov/, and that the weight of our military resources 
cast into the scale against the power which has insulted and as- 
saulted the republic. 
—June 22, 1918. 

|CZZOEZD| 

There is a sort of courage, which, I fi'ankly confess it, I do not 
possess, — a boldness to vrhich I dare not aspire, a valour which I 
cannot covet. I cannot lay myself dovv^n in the v/ay of the welfare 
and happiness of my country. That, I cannot — I have not the 
courage to do. I cannot interpose the power with wMch I may be 
invested — a power conferred, not for my personal benefit, nor for 
my aggrandizement, but for m.y country's good — to check her on- 
ward march to greatness and glory. I have not courage enough, 
I am too covv'ardly for that. — Henry Clay. 

10 



SETTLING THE TEEMS OF PEACE 

The Constitution of the United States does not vest the chief 
executive with the exclusive function of determining terms of 
peace in any war declared by Congress, and which can only be 
terminated by Congress in the ratification of a treaty of peace. 
This matter, therefore, is one upon which every citizen of the 
republic has a right to think and to speak. 

That responsibility for the determination of declarations of war 
and treaties of peace does not rest in any one quarter is indicated 
by President Wilson himself when he lays down as one of the con- 
ditions of peace, the destruction of every arbitrary power that can 
separately, secretly or of its ovm choice disturb the peace of the 
world, or if it cannot be destroyed that such power be at least 
greatly contracted. Undoubtedly the power of the Kaiser to de- 
clare war without consulting the German people or other branches 
of the German government had much to do with precipitating the 
present war. The lesson is that everywhere throughout the world 
power exercised in the name of government should be subjected 
to checks and limitations. No branch of the government should be 
permitted to fall into contempt. It should be understood that 
those who seek to degTade Congress, for instance, to a state of 
impotence, are not true friends of genuine democracy. It should 
be understood that those vv'hc, like Senator Owen, would take from 
the Supreme Court the power to place its decree between Congress 
or the executive and the violation of any of the fundamental guar- 
antees or principles of the Constitution, are trying to save the 
world for an autocracy quite as dangerous as that which flourishes 
in Germany, Austria and Turkey. 

With President Wilson's deciaration that hereafter nations 
should be governed in their relationships by the common law of 
civiliz,ed society, and that there should be established after the 
war som.e organization of peace which will make binding upon the 
world the decisions of some definite tribunal of justice, free and 
enlightened people everyv/here will agree. Upon the details of 
such an arrangement there may be wide differences of opinion. A 
league of some nations to compel other nations to be guided by 
their principles of justice might become as subversive of its orig- 
inal purpose as the Holy Alliance. A league of all nations consent- 
ing to certain settled principles of international justice, with power 
to enforce the decisions of a tribunal in which all nations shall be 
represented, might be a solution of this problem of world justice 

11 



AMERICANISM 

and world peace. As in our Constitution, however, there would 
have to be certain reservations, such as the recognition of the 
Monroe Doctrine, and the right of this republic, for instance, to 
regulate its own economic relations in conformity with long estab- 
lished American policies. 

The second condition of peace laid down by President Wilson 
reads : 

"The settlement of every question, whether of territory, of sov- 
ereignty, of economic arrangement, or of political relationship, 
upon the basis of the free acceptance of that settlement by the peo- 
ple immediately concerned and not upon the basis of the material 
interest or advantage of any other nation or people which may 
desire a different settlement for the sake of its own exterior influ- 
ence or mastery." 

As a generality this will meet approval, but there will be con- 
siderable difficulty in practically applying the principle in the set- 
tlement of issues which figure in the present war, and of some 
which existed before the war in nations not originally involved in 
the struggle. The settlement of all territorial and economic and 
political questions at the end of this war to the mutual satisfac- 
tion of France and Germany would be some job, even for a master 
mind like that of Colonel Edwin M. House, of Texas. The settle- 
ment of the question of economic relationship between rival com- 
mercial powers, heretofore left to the decision of the nation which 
makes the laws affecting trade relations, v/ouid present some difli- 
culties. For instance, it might be a bit difficult to enact a tariff 
law for the United States which would get the approval of a refer- 
endum in Europe. It might be difficult to pass an immigration law 
in the United States which would secure free acceptance in China 
and Japan. Under such a system Great Britain might be stripped 
of her colonies, in most instances with detrimental effect to the 
people of these dependencies. Russia under the plan of local self 
determination would dissolve into a mass of petty principalities. 

It is impossible to believe that a settlement of the war can be 
arrived at which will be satisfactory to everybody concerned. The 
first condition of a just settlement is the defeat of the central em- 
pires and their allies. Until that end is accomplished it is idle to 
talk definitely of peace terms. The United States will not be the 
only nation at the council table ; on the contrary it will be one of 
many nations; doubtless the most influential of ail, but with no 
final voice upon the matters that will be there determined. The 
American people seek no selfish advantage as to the result of their 
participation in this war; neither do they seek the sacrifice of their 
own interests and their own welfare in the peace bargaining ; desir- 
ing to attain no selfish end, they do not intend, for instance, to be 
sacrificed to the selfish demands of any foreign power which may 
be looking to the exploitation of American markets as a means of 

12 



AMERICANISM 

recoupino- itself for tlie losses incident to a war for world mastery, 
military and economic. 

The thing- to be thought of now is fighting the war to a victorious 
finish. Thereafter the people who have borne the burdens and 
made the sacrifices of war may be depended upon to assert them- 
selves in the day of settlement. As Lincoln said at Indianapolis on 
his way to take up the Presidency, the future rests not with Presi- 
dents, or politicians, or oflice seekers, but with the people of the 
republic, who have at heart no purpose other than that of making 
the world safe for this republic, and making the republic safe for 
its people and for the world. 
—July 13, 1918. 



CZIOEZD 



Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been 
or shall be unfurled, there will her (America's) heart, her benedic- 
tions and her prayers be. ^But she goes not abroad in search of 
monsters to destroy. She 'is the well-wisher to the freedom and 
mdependence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of 
her own. She will recommend the general cause, by the counte- 
nance of her voice and the benignant sympathy of her example. 
She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than 
her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she 
would involve herself, beyond the power of extrication, in all the 
wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and am- 
bition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of free- 
dom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly 
change from liberty to force. The frontlet upon her brow would 
no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and inde- 
pendence but in its stead v/ould soon be substituted an imperial 
diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance 
of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the 
world; she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit. — John 
Quincy Adams. 

_ The first object of a free people is the preservation of their 
liberty, and liberty is only to be preserved by maintaining consti- 
tutional restraints and just divisions of political power. Nothing 
is more deceptive or more dangerous than the pretence of a desire 
to simplify government. 

The simplest governments are despotisms; the next simplest, 
limited monarchies ; but all republics, all governments of law, must 
impose numerous limitations and qualifications of authority, and 
give many positive and many qualified rights. In other words, 
they must be subject to rule and regulation. This is the very 
essence of free political institutions. 

This is the nature of constitutional liberty, and this is OUR lib- 



AIMERICANISM 

erty, if we will rightly understand and preserve it. Every free 
government is necessarily complicated, because all such govern- 
ments establish restraints, as well on the power of government 
itself as on that of individuals. If vve will abolish the distinction 
of branches, and have but one branch ; if we will abolish jury trials, 
and leave all to the judge; if we shall then ordain that the legis- 
lator shall be that judge; and if we place tlie executive power in 
the same hands, we may readily simplify government. We may 
easily bring it to the simplest of all possible fomis, a pure despot- 
ism. But a separation of departments, so far as practicable, and 
the preservation of clear lines of distinction between them, is the 
fundamental idea in the creation of all our constitutions; and, 
doubtless, the continuance of regulated liberty depends on main- 
taining these boundaries. — Daniel Webster. 

In the American state, the legislatui'e is not supreme, but has 
limits to its authoi'ity prescribed by a written document known as 
the Constitution; and if the legislature happens to pass a law 
which violates the Constitution, then whenever a specified case 
happens to arise in which this statute is involved, it can be brought 
before the court, and the decision of the court, if adverse to the 
statute, annuls it, and renders it of no effect. The importance of 
this feature of civil government in the United States can hardly 
be overrated. It marks a momentous advance in civilization, and 
it is especially interesting as being peculiarly American. Almost 
everything e]se in our fundamental institutions was brought by 
our forefathers in a more or less highly developed condition from 
England; but the development of the written constitution, with 
the consequent relation of the courts to the law-making power, 
has gone on entirely on Amei'ican soil. — John Fiske. 

"Separated by a wide ocean from the nations of Europe and 
from the political interests which entangle tliem together, with 
productions and wants whicli i-ender our commerce and friend- 
ship useful to them and theirs to us, it can not be the interest of 
any to assail us, nor ours to disturb them. W^e should be most 
unwise, indeed, were we to cast away the singular blessings of the 
position in which nature has placed us, the opportunity she has 
endowed us with of pursuing, at a distance from foreign conten- 
tions, the paths of industr:y% peace and happiness, of cultivating 
general friendship, and of bringing collisions of interest to the 
umpirage of reason than of force." — Thomas Jefferson. 

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing- 
can fail; without it nothing can succeed. Consequently he Vv^ho 
molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes 
or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible 
or impossible to be executed. — Abraham Lincoln. 

11 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS ARE WORTH FIGHTING 

TO PRESERVE 

September seventeenth, perhaps the most important anniversary 
in the calendar of American patriotism, passes by each year al- 
most without notice. It is the date of the adoption of the Ameri- 
can Constitution by the Philadelphia convention over which 
George Washington presided, twelve years after the adoption of 
the Declaration of Independence. The adoption of the Declara- 
tion was a great event ; the achievement of national independence 
in a struggle of eight years against the mightiest nation of the 
time an even greater one ; but greatest of all achievements of our 
Revolutionary forefathers was the adoption of a frame of govern- 
ment, "the greatest work," as Gladstone said, "ever struck ofi' at 
a given time by the hand and brain of man,'' which has so v/ell 
stood the test of time that under it there has been developed upon 
this continent the freest and mightiest people of all time. 

So much is said in deprecation of our form of government by 
demagogues and doctrinaires, so little in its defense, that the su- 
preme merit of our national Constitution is not generally under- 
stood even by the American people. The framers of the Constitu- 
tion did not throw together a plan of government in haphazard 
fashion. It represented the most conscientious research into every 
governm.ental experiment in history by the gi'eatest group of 
publicists that ever appeared in one group in the life of a nation. 

In these later days critics of the American Constitution have 
appeared who complain that it does not provide a puie democracy. 
The framers of our Constitution knevv, from the study of history, 
the dangers of pure democracy, a form of government which, even 
in little Greece, banished wise men for being called just, and 
courageous men for speaking the truth. They knew that unre- 
strained rule by a majority was just as much of an autocracy as 
unrestrained rule by a monarch. They devised the great plan of 
checks and balances, of responsibilities and restraints, of divided 
prerogative and supervision, which has given us that liberty safe- 
guarded by law that is the glory of our civilization. 

We are pointed, too, in these days, to the virtues of the exag- 
gerated state under which the citizen is the ci-eature, I'ather than 
the master, of government. This form of state is not progressive, 
but reactionary. It had an early example in Sparta, and under it 
developed nothing but slave spirits and stoic deed^-;. The modem 



AMERICANISM 

exuniple is Prussianism, vvliich the whole world has liad to rise 
up and fight because it has substituted the soulless state for the 
individual conscience. 

Of the perils of mere majority rule, without the restraint of 
law we have the horrible example of Russia undei- the bolshevik 
socialists. The word bolsheviki means the majority. Without 
constitutional restraints this majority, not of the Russian people, 
b-ut of the faction temporarily in control of the Russian g'overn- 
ment. has proceeded upon the theory that only the class in power 
lias any rights that need to be respected. Thei'efore we have had 
murder and rapine on a scale unpi'eeedented in history, and the net 
result is a people reduced to such depths of miseiy as the world 
has never before conceived. 

With so much ag'itation against our form of government being- 
carried on by demagogues and doctrinaires possessed by European 
conceptions of government, and with no adequate appreciation of 
what Americanism means, it is tlie duty of the American people 
to study for themselves the merits of their own peculiar form of 
government. Wliile there is so much talk of saving the world for 
democracy, there aie many Americans who believe that the adop- 
tion by Europe of the federated republican form of goveinment, 
possibly by the division of the continent into two or three gov- 
ernmental groups, w'ould be a better solution of the situation there 
than many of the schemes which have been proposed. 
— September 21, 1918. 



cznonzs 



Where, then, shall we go to find an agency that can uphold and 
renovate declining public virtue? Where sliould we go but there, 
where ail republican virtue begins and must end; where the Pro- 
metb.ean fire is ever to be rekindled until it shall finally expire; 
where motives are formed and passions disciplined? To the do- 
mestic fireside and humble school, where the American citizen is 
trained. Instruct him there, that it vv'ill not be enough that he can 
claim for his country Lacedaemonian heroism, but tliat more than 
Spartan valor and more than Roman magnificence is required of 
her. * * * that their country has appointed only one altai- and one 
sacrifice for all her sons, and that ambition and avarice must be 
slain on that altar, for it is consecrated to humanity. — William li. 
Seward. 

"To stand in firm and cautious independence of all entanglements 
in the European sj^'stem, has been a cardinal point of their policy 
under every administration of their government, fi-om the peace 
of 1783 to this day."— John Quincy Adams, 1820. 



16 



A DECISIVE PEACE 
That Is V/hat Is Desired by the American People 

Were Germany to indicate acceptance of the terms of peace 
proposed by President Wilson, withdraw her armies to the borders 
of Gei-many and, while strengthening her powers of resistance by 
the reorganization of an army now trembhng under the blows of a 
triumphant enemy, transfer the war from the field of battle to the 
council table, the most dangerous phase of the war would have 
been entered. 

A still undefeated Germany would thus be enabled to play one 
of the enemy powers against another with the justified hope of 
ci-eating discord that would enable the central powers to emerge 
from the present war, if not victorious, then armed for a resump- 
tion of the conflict either upon disagreem.ent at the peace confer- 
ence, or by attacking her divided enemies one by one after peace, 
on paper, has been concluded. 

Not out of any desire to crush or humiliate the GeiTnan people, 
but out of a determination to make this great struggle eventuate 
in permanent relief from the menace of militarism, the war should 
come to a decisive conclusion. Our adversaries should either con- 
fess defeat by an unconditional military surrender which would in- 
vite the generosity of her foes, accompanied by a dissolution of 
her vast armies, or defeat should be inflicted upon them in actual 
conflict. 

Thei-e is unity of miiitai'y command in tlie armies of the nations 
united in the task of defeating Germany, l}ut v^-e do not knov/ that 
there is complete unity of command among tlie statesmen of the 
several powers joined in this great enterpiise. The victories gained 
on the field at the loss of so much blood and treasure may be lost 
in a premature peace conference. 

We can, of course, get out of the vvar without achieving a con- 
clusive issue of the struggle. We could have kept out of the war 
in the beginning with the same result, and v/ithout loss of blood 
and treasure. We have struck blows at Gei-raany, we have in- 
flicted injuries not easily forgotten, and if we now take the issue 
out of the hands of our soldiers and sailors and put it in the hands 
01 diplomats, all that our armies have fought for, all tliat oui- peo- 
ple have been burdened for, may be lost. 

The people of this country went to war somewhat reluctantly. 
Having gone to war they do not desire to cease fighting until some- 

17 



AMERICANISM 

thing has been settled, and settled for all time. They do not want 
to take the chance, at a moment when victory seems in sight, of 
permitting the enemy an opportunity to reform its lines, to rest 
and refit and prepare for new aggressions. This might mean an 
indefinite prolongation of the war. That Germany is ready to 
make terms means only that her whole campaign of force is about 
to collapse. Why not let it collapse, dissolving the enemy armies 
and bringing our soldiers home, rather than to start a long peace 
parley with the world still an armed camp ? Why not let it be dem- 
onstrated to the world, once for all, that there is force enough in 
the world to defeat force when employed for the world's oppression 
and subjugation? And if we did not intend to do this, why did we 
go to war at all ? 
—October 12, 1918. 

ICZJOEZDl 

There is no disposition to disturb the colonial possessions, as 
they may now exist, of any of the European powers; but it is 
against the establishment of new European colonies upon this con- 
tinent that the principle is directed. * * * Europe would be indig- 
nant at any American attempt to plant a colony on any part of her 
shores, and her justice must perceive, in the rule contended for, 
only perfect reciprocity. 

While we do not desire to interfere in Europe with the political 
system of the allied powers, we should regard as dangerous to our 
peace and safety any attempt, on their part, to extend their sys- 
tem to any portion of this hemisphere. The political systems of 
the two continents are essentially different. Each has an exclusive 
right to judge for itself what is best suited to its own condition 
and most likely to promote its happiness ; but neither has a right 
to enforce upon the other the establishment of its peculiar system. 
— Henry Clay. 

It is obvious that all the powers of Europe will be continually 
manoeuvring with us, to work us into their real or imaginary bal- 
ances of power. They will all wish to make of us a make-weight 
candle, when they are weighing out their pounds. Indeed, it is not 
surprising; for we shall very often, if not always, be able to turn 
the scale. But I think it ought to be our rule not to meddle ; and 
that of all the powers of Europe, not to desire us, or perhaps, even 
to permit us, to interfere, if they can help it.— John Adams, 1782. 

Determined as we are to avoid, if possible, wasting the energies 
of our people in war and destruction, we shall avoid implicating 
ourselves with the powers of Europe, even in support of principles 
which we mean to pursue. They have so many other interests 
different from ours, that we must avoid being entangled in them, 
— Thomas Jefferson. 

IS 



AMERICA'S SEPARATE DESTINY 

The American people have no desire to trade the Monroe Doc- 
trine for the right to meddle in the affairs of Europe, and thereby 
to become parties to the controversies growing out of traditional 
territorial, trade and dynastic rivalries. 

The American people prefer to have the American repubhc fulfill 
its own peculiar and separate destiny than to have it enter into 
any world-wide partnership with any other nation or group of 
nations, except for the sole and single purpose of preserving the 
world's peace by the substitution of arbitration for war in the 
settlement of international disputes. 

There is no such thing, so Washington said, as disinterested 
friendship between nations. The enemies of today are the friends 
of tomorrow; the friends of today, the enemies of yesterday. 

The sentimental ties, cemented by the blood of common ideals 
and common heroism, which unite us with the nations allied with 
us in the great war now drawing to a close, will never be forgotten. 
They afford no good reason for abandoning the splendid isolation 
which is the sure protection of this republic from the embroil- 
ments of other pov/ers. 

The American people did not go to war for any selfish purpose, 
but neither did they go for an opportunity to enter into any world- 
wide system of communism under which we are to divide up our 
vv^ealth with the world's poverty, surrender our ideals and interests 
to those of other lands, or sacrifice the peculiar advantages of our 
situation. 
— November 16, 1918. 



cmoEZD 



In the discharge of my official duty I shall endeavor to be 
guided by a just and unstrained construction of the Constitution, 
a careful observance of the distinction between the powers granted 
to the federal government and those reserved to the states or to 
the people, and by a cautious appreciation of those functions 
which by the Constitution and laws have been assig-ned to the 
executive branch of the government. 

But he who takes the oath today to preserve, protect, and defend 
the Constitution of the United S^tates only assumes the solemn ob- 
ligation which every patriotic citizen — on the farm, in the work- 
shop, in the busy marts of trade, and everywhere — should share 

1!) 



AMERICANISM 

with him. The Constitution which prescribes his oeith, my coun- 
trymen, is yours; the government you have chosen him to admin- 
ister for a time is yours ; the suffrage which executes the will of 
freemen is yours ; the laws and the entire scheme of our civil rule, 
from the town meeting to the state capitals and the national cap- 
ital, is yours. Every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, 
under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, exer- 
cises a public trust. Nor is this all. Every citizen owes to the 
country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its public servants 
and a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity and usefulness. 
Thus is the people's will impressed upon the whole framework of 
our civil polity — municipal, state and federal ; and this is the price 
of our liberty and the inspiration of our faith in the republic. — 
Grover Cleveland. 

In order that this republic may become fully independent it 
must become not merely politically, but also industrially independ- 
ent; for, broadly considered, political freedom is not so much an 
end as a means ; it is not a goal, but a starting point. In the pres- 
ence of false industrial and economic systems political freedom 
can not avail. After inducing the mass of the people to indulge 
in high aspiration, to believe in the principles of our immortal 
Declaration that "all men are created equal," to understand that 
here they are living under no system of caste, that the people con- 
stitute the government, and that all opportunities are open to the 
least among them, it is vain to say that they must be content to 
live in conditions of misery identical with those which surround 
the subjects of despotic governments who have never drank in 
the spirit of liberty. We must not say to our people, "Aspire, be 
proud, be independent — and live in squalor." 

To be independent in the true and full sense a nation must be- 
come self-sustaining. Its work must be done by its own people on 
its own soil. In the means of livelihood of its citizens it must be 
independent of all the world. It should not leave them subject to 
the shifting, uncertain and antagonistic policies of foreign govern- 
ments. A great people should possess themselves of all the arts 
and industries of civilization. — Senator John P. Jones, of Nevada, 
in U. S. Senate Sept. 10, 1890. 

I hope the United States of America will be able to keep disen- 
gaged from the labyrinth of European policies and wars. It should 
be the policy of the United States to administer to their wants 
without being engaged in their quarrels. — George Washington, 
1788. 

A great fi'ee people owes it to itself and to mankind not to sink 
into helplessness before the powers of evil. — Theodore Roosevelt. 

20 



EXECUTIVE LEGISLATION VIOLATES 
THE CONSTITUTION 

The American people are deeply stirred by the presentation of 
the fundamental issue of autocracy. This was the issue upon 
which the verdict of November 5th was rendered. Since that 
time it has been intensified. Today it stirs to the depths the Dem- 
ocratic as well as the Republican party. Something larger than 
any ordinary party issue has aroused the people of the United 
States. The deeply underlying cause of the existing excitement 
has not been definitely stated in public. To this paper the cause 
seems clear. 

The people of this country have been accustomed to determine 
public questions by a process defined in the American Constitution, 
in accordance with the principles of representative republicanism. 
It has been customary here to decide great public questions on the 
basis of expressed public opinion. This expression has been given 
at the polls, in the election of duly constituted legislative authority. 

The American Constitution anticipates both commercial ti'eaties 
in time of peace and political treaties as conclusions of war. It 
provides methods by v/hich the adjustment of • such matters may 
be made. Treaties concluding war are handled as the exercise of 
v/ar power, on the assumption that issues determined by war must 
be settled therein. These issues, so far as the United States is 
concerned, are outlined in our declarations of \ys.y, and cannot 
properly go beyond these except by legislative consent. The fram- 
ing of treaties of peace was not expected by the framers of our 
Constitution to include world legislation affecting the whole eco- 
nomic and political structure of nations. This is clearly shown by 
the fact that legislative powers in this government are confided 
to a particular branch of tlie governm.ent apart from the executive. 

President VVilson has cliosen to regard the formulation of the 
treaty of peace as an opportunity for world legislation: legislation 
binding upon the United States and upon the rest of the v/orld, 
both as to domestic and international policies. He has in his per- 
sonally determined fouj'teen points declared a program of legisla- 
tion by an international conference to which he lias asked tlie 
assent of no one but himseif, and whicli lias never been submitted 
for sanction to the real legislative branch of our government. This 
departure from the spirit of our Constitution might be considered 
only technical except that the Presider.t "iss chosen to completely 

21 



AMERICANISM 

ignore the coordinate treaty making branch of government, with 
the advice and consent of which all international covenants, under 
the Constitution, must be made. He has violated both precedents 
and clear constitutional implications by leaving the Senate entirely 
out of consideration in connection with the selection of his peace 
commission. 

The very creation of an international legislative body to deter- 
mine questions of both domestic and international concern, and 
entering the realm of economics and sociology as well as police 
power, constitutes an exercise of the treaty making pov/er which 
requires the assent of the Senate. A new kind of peace treaty is 
proposed: one in which a program of legislation affecting vitally 
the domestic concerns of the United States is included. But legis- 
lative power in the United States belongs to Congress, and not the 
executive. There is no constitutional warrant for the assumption 
of legislative powers by the executive. Under our form of govern- 
ment legislative functions are by the people temporarily confided 
to a definite representative body, chosen by the people in accord- 
ance with their viev/s upon the issues these representatives advo- 
cate. This is the essence of American civil liberty. Without it 
there is taxation without representation : the thing against which 
the Revolution was fought. There is legislation by the executive 
power: the essence of that autocracy against which the Constitu- 
tion undertakes to safeguard the people. 

It is grossly improper for a President of the United States to 
appoint a peace commission which represents only himself person- 
ally; which denies representation not only to a coordinate treaty 
making body but to the opposition party of the country, repre- 
senting, as shown by recent election returns, more than half the 
people in it. But the assumption by the executive that he may, 
through such representatives, undertake legislative powers which 
may, for instance, prevent national self determination in such mat- 
ters as our domestic fiscal policy, or our attitude toward the seces- 
sion of any portion of the nation, is a clear violation of the Consti- 
tution the President is sworn to support. 

The constitutional functions of our representatives at a peace 
conference extend only to the determination of matters at issue in 
the war, and the submission of the agreement effected to the Sen- 
ate of the United States for confirmation. The adoption of any 
form of international government, or legislation with reference to 
any question affecting the domestic policies of the United States is 
clearly beyond the constitutional power of any but the legislative 
branch of our government. Such legislation could clearly be neither 
initiated in nor adopted by the executive branch of government, 
and even the representatives to such an international parliament 
could be selected only by the American people direct, or by their 
legislative representatives in the Congress of the United States. 

The question of an international parliament is clearly one for 

22 



AMERICANISM 

legislative determination. It is for the people, either directly or 
through their duly constituted legislative representatives, to say 
what functions they are willing to yield to a world's congress such 
as it is proposed to constitute at Paris under the name of peace 
conference. Such a conference may be desirable; that is for the 
American people to determine, since they must bear the burdens 
and accept the consequences, whether good or bad, of such an 
arrangement. The problem, therefore, is not one of the wisdom or 
unwisdom of such an international legislative body, but of the 
authority possessed by the executive alone to enter into it without 
the consent of the governed within the nation by whose constitu- 
tion and laws he is bound. The problems confronting such a world 
congress would be of such infinite range and complexity that no 
thoughtful person believes they could be settled off hand. Their 
settlement, beyond the disposition of the questions between the 
victors and the vanquished, should not be based merely upon armed 
force, but upon the deliberate consideration and debate of the mat- 
ters at issue by the peoples affected in the selection of their repre- 
sentatives, and by these representatives in council assembled. 

The issue raised, therefore, is essentially one between autocracy 
and representative republicanism. The people have been deeply 
stirred because they feel instinctively the existence of such an 
issue, which we believe has here been in specific terms defined. 
—December 7, 1918. 



cznonzD 



I ask each of you to remember that he cannot shove the blame 
on others entirely, if things go wrong. This is a government by 
the people, and the people are to blame ultimately if they are mis- 
represented, just exactly as much as if their worst passions, their 
worst desires are represented ; for in the one case it is their supine- 
ness that is represented exactly as in the other case it is their 
vice. Let each man make his weight felt in suppoiting a truly 
American policy, a policy which decrees that we shall be free and 
shall hold our own in the face of other nations. — Theodore Roose- 
velt. 

The framers of the Constitution did not believe that any man 
or any body of men could safely be intrusted with unlimited power. 
They thought, and all experience justified them in thinking that 
human nature could not support the temptation which unlimited 
power always brings. They had deeply ingrained the belief of 
the English-speaking people that the power of" the king should be 
strictly limited. They felt that this great principle applied with 
equal force to ten thousand or ten million kings — in other words 
to a popular majority of numbers. They established a repi'esenta- 
tive democracy and a thoroughly popular government, but they 



AMERICANISM 

tliought that the "right divine of kings to govern wrong" was as 
false a maxim when appHed to many men called voters as when 
applied to one who happened to wear a crown. — Henry Cabot 
Lodge. 

Columbia should have been the name of the M^estern hemis- 
phere — the republican half of the world — the hemisphere without 
a king on the ground — the reserved world, where God sent the 
trodden spirits of men to be revived ; to find, where all things were 
primitive, man's primitive rights. 

Royal prerogatives are plants that require a walled garden 
and to be defended from the wild, free growths that crowd and 
climb upon them. Pomp and laced garments are incongruous in 
the brush. Danger and hardships are commoners. The man in 
front is the captain — the royal commission to the contrary not- 
withstanding. The platoon and volley firing by the word would 
not do — the open order, one man to a tree, firing at his own will 
and at a particular savage, was better. Out of this and like calls 
to do things upon his ov/n initiative the free American was bom. 
He thought he might get along with kings and imperial parlia- 
ments if they were benevolent, and did and allowed v/hat he wished, 
but they were forever doing their own pleasure, as the way of ab- 
solutism always is. And he found it necessary first to remonstrate 
and then to resist. — President Benjamin Harrison. 

The history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted 
opinion of hufnan virtue which would make it wise in a nation to 
commit interests of so delicate and momentous a kind as those 
which concern its intercourse with the rest of the world, to the 
sole disposal of a magistrate created and circumstanced as w^ould 
be a President of the United States. It must, indeed, be clear, to 
a demonstration, that the joint possession of the power in ques- 
tion by the President and Senate would afford a greater prospect 
of security than the separate possession of it by either of them. — 
Alexander Hamilton. 

Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die, and none are 
fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the beauty of 
life. Both life and death are parts of the same great adventure. 
Honor, highest honor, to those v/ho fearlessly face death for a 
good cause. No life is so honorable or so fruitful as such a death. 
Unless men are willing to fight and die for great ideals, including 
love of country, ideals will vanish. — Theodore Roosevelt. 

The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred, 
or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. — George Wash- 
ington. 

24 



A FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE 

The argument is made that the Senate's part in the formulation 
of treaties is confined to the process of ratification or rejection. 
The statement is not true. Treaties must be ratified under the 
Constitution by a two-thirds vote of the Senate, but separate and 
apart from this is the provision that treaties must be made **by 
and with the consent of the Senate." "Advice and consent" imply 
initiative as well as mere ratification. It is grossly unfair to the 
Senate, moreover, to thrust before it a treaty ready made, affect- 
ing in its terms in a tremendous way the future of the country, 
and then say to it that it must either ratify the compact or take 
the responsibility for overthrowing the peace arrangements. This 
advantage is fully realized by those who are insisting that the 
Senate should not be consulted in advance about the terms of the 
peace treaty. The arrangements made mean that the Senate will 
never have opportunity to exercise material influence upon the 
terms of the treaty. Those who cannot comprehend the funda- 
mental wrong of this procedure merely lack in an understanding of 
the processes of free government on the American pattern. In 
this matter the masses of the people seem to comprehend the situ- 
ation more clearly than many alleged leaders. 
—December 14, 1918. 



cnoEZD 



Let the passion for America cast out the passion for Europe. 
Here let there be what the earth waits for, — exalted manhood. 
What this country longs for is personalities, grand persons, to 
counteract its materialities. For it is the rule of the universe that 
com shall serve man, and not man corn. 

They who find America insipid, — they for whom London and 
Paris have spoiled their ovm homes, — can be spared to return to 
those cities. I not only see a career at home for more genius than 
we have, but for more than there is in the world. — Ralph Waldo 
Emerson, 

The Senate of the United States must remain an important part 
of a thoroughly independent, coordinate branch of the government, 
neither arrogating to itself functions not devolved upon it under 
the Constitution, nor, upon the other hand, subtracting from its 
legitimate powers. Its legislative duties are vast, while its duties 

2h 



AMERICANISM 

with respect to treaties and appointments to the public service are 
of very great moment. A servile Senate was not contemplated by 
its founders. The Senate is today as jealous as ever of its proper 
dignities and its just powers and as worthy as ever of the popular 
I'espect and confidence. * * '^ 

The Senate, it is sometimes said, is not always responsive to the 
popular will. Such assumption is erroneous, judging by the record 
of legislation accomplished. The will of the people finds utterance 
in the public law in due course : not that will which is the unreas- 
oning passionate expression of the moment, but that will which 
is the fruit of deliberate, intelligent reflection. 

The Senate of the United States v^'as designed by our fathers to 
be a deliberate chamber in the fullest and best sense — a chamber 
where the passions of the hour might be ai'rested and where the 
better judgment of the people v/ould find ultimate expression. 
Those who in their unreflecting moments would sweep it away 
would overturn one of the strongest safeguards of oui* political 
fabric. — Charles W. Fairbanks. 

Let the American youth never forget that they possess a noble 
inheritance, bought by the toils and sufferings and blood of their 
ancestors, and capable if wisely improved and faithfully guarded, 
of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial bless- 
ings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion 
and independence. The structure has been erected by architects 
of consummate skill and fidelity ; its foundations are solid ; its com- 
partments are beautiful as well as useful; its arrangements are 
full of wisdom and order; and its defenses are impregnable from 
without. It has been reared for in^^mortality, if the work of man 
may justly aspire to such a title. It may, nevertheless, perish in 
an hour by the folly or corruption or negligence of its only keep- 
ers, the people. Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit 
and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are ban- 
ished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest ; and 
the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people in 
order to betray them. — Justice Story. 

The will of the people is the laM- of the land. * * * The great 
body of the people have a single interest, that of having their gov- 
ernment wisely, faithfully and honestly administered. They have 
little care for mere individuals, except as the individual may serve 
them best, and best represent the principles which are dear to 
them in governmental policy. — William McKinley. 

Our diplomatic relations connect us on terms of equality and 
honest friendship with the chief powers of the world, while we 
avoid entangling participation in their intrigues, their passions 
and their wars. — George Bancroft. 



ON THE QUESTION OF ENDORSING POUCIES 
NOT YET DISCLOSED 

The people of the United States are anxious beyond the power 
of expression that this war shall prove to be the war to end wars. 

They have no idea that a just peace can be guaranteed by any 
arrangement which does not provide for the reduction of ai*ma- 
ments. 

They therefore believe in the abolition both of militarism and 
navalism. 

Their idea of world freedom is not the guardianship of the world 
by one power, or two powers, or a selected group of pov/ers, believ- 
ing as they do that such guardianship is only another name for 
domination. 

The people of this country do not* favor any league of nations 
which does not relieve the world of the necessity of maintaining 
great armaments, understanding that with any one or two or three 
powers in a position to dominate the world, ti'eaties are liable at 
any moment to become scraps of paper. 

If armaments are to be maintained, then this country must be 
left free to protect itself as circumstances may require, not re- 
manded by our own choice or the choice of others to any secondary 
position as an independent power. 

If great navies are to be maintained then this nation must have 
a navy equal to that of any other pov\'er in the world. There is no 
more suggestion of belligerency in such a program than there is 
in the theory that some other power should have a first navy. Such 
a navy must be maintained not as a means of getting into trouble, 
but of keeping out of trouble, and as the means of making unneces- 
sary the maintenance of huge land forces. 

The mere adoption by a peace conference of a string of glittering 
generalities declaring the mutual good intentions of everybody 
concerned will not constitute a guarantee of the world's peace. 
That must be accompanied, as an evidence of good faith, by the 
actual reduction of all armaments, and the failure to reduce these 
amiaments is proof of mental reservations on the part of the sig- 
natory powers. 

The creation of many new and untried governments in Europe 
only adds to the probability of conflicts in the other hemisphere 
which do not. directly concern this republic. If we are to take re- 
sponsibility in this connection, it means, of course, not the assur- 



AMERICANISM 

ance of peace, but a vastly inci'eased danger of war. To involve 
this country in the European political situation permanently, and 
at the same time to releg-ate this republic to any secondary posi- 
tion in the matter of sea power, would be to commit an incredible 
act of folly. 

To be controlled in this situation either by partiality for or 
prejudice against any particular nation is equally un-American. 
The treaty of peace is one thing ; the permanent settlement of the 
future relationship of nations is another. Nothing was ever said 
truer than the declaration of Washington that there is no such 
thing as disinterested friendship among nations. Very properly 
every nation in the world is looking out for its own interests. This 
is the duty of American statesmanship, for if our representatives 
do not protect the interests of the United States no one else is 
going to attend to this job. 

Two courses lie before the United States; the maintenance of 
its own independent national existence and the fulfillment of its 
own special national destiny, or entrance into a world-v/ide com- 
bination or coiporation. If Me enter the coiporation, let us be 
sure that its effects, if not its purposes, are not less altruistic than 
our own and that it does not merely substitute consolidated for 
independent force as a factor in world affairs ; second, let us not too 
readily abandon business at the old stand in order to become minor- 
ity stockholders in a political company wherein our ov/n interests 
may be subjected to tiie control of some other stockholder or com- 
bination of stockholders. The worst enemies of the United States 
today are the mental blanks who are demanding that the Ameri- 
can people, either directly or through their legislative representa- 
tives, shall express no opinions or convictions upon these problems, 
vitally affecting the future of the republic, but shall leave it all 
to the White House and Colonel House. 
—December 28, 1918. 



ICZHOEZDl 

As nature hath separated her from Europe, and hath estab- 
lished her alone (as a sovereign) on a great continent, far removed 
from the Old World and all its embroiled interests, it is contrary 
to the nature of her existence, and consequently to her interest, 
that she should have any connections of politics with Europe oth- 
er than merely commercial. — ^Thomas Pownall, formerly a colonial 
governor, in 1781. 

Let us as men who value freedom use our utmost care to sup- 
port liberty, the only buhvark against lav/less power which in all 
ages has sacrificed to its wild iust and boundless ambition the 
blood of the best men that ever lived. — Alexander Hamilton. 



2S 



KEEPING US OUT OF WAR: THEN AND NOW 

In 1916 the American people were told that they were being 
"kept out of war," despite the fact that the policies then being pur- 
sued made it inevitable that they would become involved in war. 
The only end served by the cry v/as to promote the political 
fortunes of those who employed it, and prevent the country from 
adopting a program of preparedness for the war every thinking 
man realized was just ahead. 

Now the "he keeps us out of war" slogan is again abroad in the 
land. It is being employed by the same politicians for the same 
pui-poses, and it is duping the same gullible people, whose ardent 
love of peace makes them pathetically subject to any program 
proposed on the theory that it means the ending of war, even if, 
as a matter of fact, it only makes certain the involving of this 
country in dangers and responsibilities that mean an increased 
menace of war rather than an insurance of peace. 

The people are being told by the same propagandists who put 
over on the public the campaign cry of 1916, that if this country 
will involve itself in the creation of a super-state which is to con- 
trol the relations of nations, it will mean an insurance of the 
world's peace. It would doubtless contribute to some extent to 
peace in Europe, but so far as this country is concerned, it will 
serve only to complicate American with European affairs to such 
an extent that whatever menaces the peace of the older continents 
will threaten that of the United States. 

An interesting commentary upon the sincerity of this outcry 
that "he will keep us out of Vv-ar" is the recommendation of the 
Secretary of the Navy that we shall build the Vvforld's largest navy, 
and that of the Secretary of War that by the purchase of all the 
cantomnent sites we shall make provision for the world's largest 
army. These officials understand that the task of assuming re- 
sponsibility for the world's peace means that this countiy must 
undertake military and naval preparations heretofore unknown 
beyond the borders of the continent from whose feuds and rival- 
ries and embroilments we have heretofore been fortunately sep- 
arated. The recommendations of these two officials, involving 
vast expenditures, give far better evidence of what we are diifting 
into than all the highflown phrases of the sarae demagogues and 
doctrinaiies who befuddled and befooled the country in the last 
national campaign with the assurance that we had been "kept out 
of war." 



AMERICANISINI 

Fooling the people in 1916 was the fault of the politicians. But 
if the same people are fooled by the same politicians in the same 
way now it can be only the people's fault. It is evidently intended 
that we shall be kept out of war now in the same v/ay and to the 
same extent and from the same motives and with the same result 
which followed the great confidence game of the last national cam.- 
paign, when the politicians in power were taking credit for keeping 
this country out of a conflict they knev/ then we would inevitably 
be swept into, and v/hich they now say was at that time a struggle 
in behalf of civilization from which no nation could honorably v/ith- 
hold participation. 
—January 4, 1919. 



CZI02ZZ) 



To safeguard America first, 

To stabilize Amierica first, 

To prosper America first, 

To think America first. 

To exalt America first, 

To live for and revere America first. 

Call it the selfishness of nationality if you will. I think it an 
inspiration to patriotic devotion. 

We may do more than prove exemplars to the world of enduring 
representative democracy'' where the constitution and its liberties 
are unshaken. We may go on securely to the destined fulfillment 
and make a strong and generous nation's contribution to human 
progress, forceful in example, generous in contribution, helpful in 
all suffering and fearless in all conflicts. 

Let the internationalist dream and the bolshevist destroy. God 
pity him "for whom no minstrel raptures swell." In the spirit of 
the republic we proclaim Americanism and acclaim America. — 
Warren G. Harding, January 8, 1920. 

The people are the lightful masters of both Congress and the 
courts, — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the 
men who pervert it. Legislation and adjudication must follov/ and 
conform to the progress of society. Is it unreasonable to expect 
that some man, possessed of the loftiest genius coupled with am- 
bition sufficient to push it to the utmost stretch, will at some time 
spring up among us? And when such a one does, it will require 
the people to be united with each other, attached to the govern- 
ment and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate 
his designs. — Abraham Lincoln. 

The moral character of the United States is of m^ore importance 
than any alliance. — John Adams. 

30 



AMERICA HAS SET AN EXAMPLE TO THE WORLD 

The difficulty encountered by some of our statesmen in approach- 
ing the problems of world reconstruction after the great war, is 
that they have never attained an adequate comprehension of what 
Americanism means. 

We have heard much recently of the "self determination of peo- 
ples," and one high in authority has spoken of "the readily dis- 
cernible lines of liistoric demarcation." The big thing demon- 
strated in this American nation is that national allegiance has 
nothing, necessarily, to do with racial origin. Our national homo- 
geneity is a convincing denial of the necessity of considering gov- 
ernment a mere system of segregating peoples, or uniting merely 
in form, rather than in fact, diverse groups based upon racial, re- 
ligious or class allegiance. 

Our national motto, "Out of many, one," may be interpreted as 
meaning not merely one nation out of raiiny states, but one national 
allegiance out of many racial and religious stocks, many occupa- 
tional and geographical interests. Tlie European system has tend- 
ed to accentuate the barriers separating groups of men ; the Ameri- 
can system has broken them down, and we have taught tlie world 
that men, as men, may be brought together politically on the mere 
ground of common devotion to identical ideals of liberty and com- 
mon conceptions of common self-intei^'est, entirely without regard 
to where they come from or what they believe other than upon 
fundamental political questions. 

We have dra\\Ti to this country i-epresentatives of eveiy Euro- 
pean racial and national stock. Despite all the talk about our lack 
of homogeneity, the unity of spirit which has been created from 
this mass is the m^arvel of all history. The American is not essen- 
tially different in Maine from the American of Oregon ; the Ameri- 
can of Kansas is so much like the American of Texas that if one 
were lost in eitb.er state he would have difficulty in determining 
his location from the sort of people with whom he came in contact. 

In Europe, on the contrary, a journey of a few miles brings dif- 
ferences in dialect, in tongue, in dress and in traditions which dem- 
onstrate the stubbornness with which lines of demarcation have 
been maintained. There are greater differences in dialect in ad- 
joining counties in England than can be found in the journey 
across the v/idth of a continent here. And this is not because we 
are all descended from the same racial stock. On the contrary we 
have al^sorbed in this country during the past third of a centuiy 

31 



americanis:m 

twenty million immigrants; the}' and their children and grand 
children constitute hall" our population. 

V/hat has happened in Europe is that modern invention has so 
reduced distance that it is no longer possible peaceably and com- 
fortabl}^ to maintain so many divergent and in many instances con- 
flicting types of civilization. Europe is trying to live six in a room, 
and the over-crowding brings too many points of difference into 
conflict. 

Talk of pacifying Europe by a mere formal league of this Euro- 
pean patch-work civilization, made even mere complicated and im- 
possible by the addition of a few more governments established 
on this European idea of racial self detei-mination, will, of course, 
end in talk. Where tjiere is a war of ideas and ideals and customs 
and languages and traditions and dynasties and religions, there 
can be no peace through the formulation of some Utopian scheme 
of combination under which th.ese very differences are to be pre- 
sei-ved, and, indeed, encouraged. 

The greatest contribution tliat could be made to the peace of 
Europe and of the world would be a nev/ grouping of states under 
a decreased number of centi'al sovereignties, rather than an in- 
crease in the number of governments. If Europe were to follow 
the example of the North Am.erican continent, and set up three or 
four federated nations, each state pi-eserving its local government, 
but committing national affairs to a central government, under 
some such constitution as that of the United States, then indeed 
we might hope for permanent peace. We have talked a great deal 
of saving the world for democracy. Vv'hy v\^e have not sufficiently 
believed in our ovrn form of government, which has created homo- 
geniety out of infinite variety, is not clear except upon the hj^poth- 
esis that some Americans d© not understand or appreciate Ameri- 
canism. 

So long as the idea is upheld in the v/orld that there can be no 
political merger bet',veen people of varying racial and religious 
stocks, we are going to have continuing conflict between the preju- 
dices of these gToups. There are persons in the United States 
who are attempting to introduce into this country the European 
political system v/hereby government becomes a mere balancing of 
class conscious groups, each seeking its own advantage at the ex- 
pense of all the rest ; a sort of perpetual civil war. These men are 
not Americans but European provincials who liave not yet risen 
to the full stature of Americixn citizenship. 

liet Europe show some disposition to make those sacrifices to 
human unity which have been made in this country by scores of 
millions of men who have proved by their ready amalgamation 
into the body of American citizenship that these multiplied racial 
antagonisms are the artificial creation of men and interests, served 
by their maintenance, before we indulge in the fond delusion that 
we are to have perman.ent peace on earth, good will to men througli 

32 



AMERICANISM 

some scheme of union which, upon careful examination, is found 
to consist only of glittering generalities. The world is getting too 
small to permit every little racial group or cult to have its own gov- 
ernment, and such an arrangement will prove to be a menace, not 
a contribution, to the peace of the world. 
— January 4, 1919. 



dnOEZD 



Cultivate free commerce and honest friendship with all nations, 
but make entangling alliances with none. Our best wishes on all 
occasions, our good ofiices when required, will be afforded to pro- 
m.ote the domestic peace and foreign tranquility of all nations with 
whom we have any intercourse. Any intervention in their affairs 
further than this is contrary to our principles. — Andrew Jackson. 

Two ideas there are which, above all others, elevate and dignify 
a race, — the idea of God and country. How im.perishable is the 
idea of country! How does it live v/ithin and ennoble the heart 
in spite of persecution and trials, difficulties and dangers ? After 
two thousand years of wandering, it makes the Jew a sharer in 
the glory of the prophets, the law-givers, the warriors and poets 
who lived in the morning of time. How does it toughen every 
fibre of an Englishman's frame, and imbue the spirit of a French- 
man with Napoleonic enthusiasm? How does the German carry 
with him even the "old house-furniture of the Rhine," sui^round 
himself with the sweet and tender associations of "Fatherland;" 
and wheresoever he may be, the great names of German history 
shine like stars in the heaven above him! And the Irishman, 
though the political existence of his country is merged in a king- 
dom whose rule he may abhor, yet still do the chords of his heart 
vibrate responsive to the tones of the harp of Erin, and the lowly 
shamrock is dearer to his soul than the face-crowning laurel, the 
love-breathing myrtle, or storm-daring pine. 

What is our country ? Not alone the land and the sea, the lakes 
and rivers, and valleys and mountains; not alone the people, their 
customs and laws ; not alone the memories of the past, the hopes 
of the future ; it is something more than all these combined. It is 
a divine abstraction. You cannot tell what it is, but let its flag 
rustle above your head, you feel its living presence in your hearts. 
They tell us that our country must die ; that the sun and the stars 
will look down upon the great republic no more; that already the 
black eagles of despotism are casting lots for the garments of our 
national glory. It shall not be ! Not yet, not yet shall the nations 
lay the bleeding corpse of our country in the tomb ! If they could, 
angels would roll the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre! It 
would burst the cerements of the grave and come forth a living 
presence, "redeemed, regenerated, disenthralled." Not yet, not 



AMERICANISM 

yet shall the republic die! The heavens are not darkened, the 
stones are not rent. It shall live,— it shall live, the embodiment 
of the power and majesty of the people. Baptized anew, it shall 
stand a thousand years to come, the colossus of the nations, — its 
feet upon the continents, its sceptre over the seas, its forehead 
among the stars. — Newton Booth. 

What then is the American, this new man? He is neither an 
European or the descendant of an European, hence that strange 
mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could 
point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, 
whose wife was Dutch, v/hose son married a French woman, and 
whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. 
He is an American who, leaving behind him all his ancient preju- 
dices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life 
he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank 
he holds. He becom.es an American by being received in the broad 
lap of our great Alma Mater. 

Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, 
whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in 
the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying 
along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigor and in- 
dustry which began long since in the East; they will finish the 
great circle. The Americans were once scattered all over Europe ; 
here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of popu- 
lation which has ever appeared, and which will hereafter become 
distinct by the power of the different climates they inhabit. 

The American ought therefore to love this country much better 
than that wherein either he or his forefathers v/ere born. Here 
the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress 
of his labor ; his labor is founded on the basis of nature, self-inter- 
est; can it want a stronger allurement? Wives and children, who 
before in vain demanded of him a morsel of bread, nov/ fat and 
frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those fields whence 
exuberant crops are to arise to feed and to clothe them all ; with- 
out any part being claimed, either by a despotic prince, a rich 
abbot, or a mighty lord. Here religion demands but little of him ; 
a small voluntary salary to the minister, and gratitude to God; 
can he refuse these ? The American is a new man, who acts upon 
new principles ; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form 
new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, pen- 
ury and useless labor, he has passed to toils of a very different 
nature, rewarded by ample subsistence.— This is an American.— 
J. H. St. John de Crevecoeur. 

America has a hemisphere to itself. It must have its separate 
system of interests, which must not be subordinated to those of 
Europe — Thomas Jefferson. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

At the moment when his heroic spirit, his matchless mind, his 
dauntless courage, his flawless Americanism were needed most 
by a nation groping for leadership in an hour of great decision, 
Theodore Roosevelt has laid his body beside that of his soldier 
son in France in the last sleep. But not before he had spoken 
words of counsel to his countrymen which will live after him to 
shape and determine the issues of a national emergency perhaps 
the gravest yet faced by the American people. 

Alone among American Presidents it was reserved to Theodore 
Roosevelt to perform larger service to the American people follow- 
ing his retirement from the Presidency and in the final months of 
his life than during his executive incumbency. His was the voice 
which, in the months befoi-e the war, sounded forth the warning 
of impending national danger and the call to national preparedness. 
His was the voice which, when the war came, summoned the Amer- 
ican people to unity of sentiment and of endeavor in behalf of the 
national cause, where, in every former national war emergency, 
leaders of the party opposition had failed in unreserved support 
of their countiy's cause. Upon the altar of his countiy he offered 
himself, only to be rejected; and then he gave his four sons to 
make in the service of their country a proud record of heroic sacri- 
fice. The war over and the victory won, the voice of our last sol- 
dier President was heard reaffirming, in an hour when departures 
from American tradition and precedent and spirit seemed immi- 
nent, the sentiments of our first soldier President in behalf of AN 
INDEPENDENT NATIONAL EXISTENCE FOR THE UNITED 
STATES OF AMERICA, free from the domination or interference 
or preponderant influence of any alien nation or group of nations. 

Contemporaneous opinion does not finally fix the place of any 
man in history/. Some men whose fame fills the v/orld for an hour 
are forgotten by succeeding generations. Only to the extent that 
tlie names of men are linked heroically with eternal principles 
are they gratefully remembered. The time server dies with the 
time he serves, the demagogue must take all his pay as he goes. 
It is asked of tlie men who aspired to greatness in the past of a 
nation: Wherein did their service contribute to the permanent 
well being of the republic? What principle did they stand for 
that lives and serves the nation ? It is not enough that men should 
have commanding ability or lofty position or persuasive oratoi^/ 
or inspiring personality; tlie test applied to fame by Time to 



AMERICANISM 

men's reputations is: Were they champions of truth or of error, 
of light or of wrong, of practical wisdom or sophistical theory, 
of good or evil to the nation and the people? Judged by that 
inexorable standard Theodore Roosevelt's fame will live beyond 
that of any other American leader of his day and generation; 
for his creed of single-track Americanism will tomorrow, as it was 
in an earlier era, be the faith of the American people. 

Theodore Roosevelt's career was one of almost continuous battle 
from the days of his youth to the moment of his death. Born 
to wealth which invited him to a life of ease and repose, his daunt- 
less spirit called him to the arena of conflict, and there he bore a 
warrior's part in the arena of municipal, of state, of national and 
of international politics. That he was ambitious, that he was not 
invariably just in his judgments, that he was not always wise or 
temperate or fair in his utterances or his actions, that he made 
many mistakes in a career crovrded with action, that there weie 
times in his career when many, even a majority of the American 
people did not feel justified in following his leadership, is true. But 
there never has been a moment when Colonel Roosevelt was not 
first and foremost a lover and servant and warrior of his country. 
In the light of that unquestioned fact the hatreds and prejudices 
and grievances of the past will be forgotten, and Americans with- 
out regard to party or I'ace or creed will join in doing honor to 
this gi-eat national and world leader, whose wonderful career now 
becomes part of the rich inheritance of Americanism. 
— January 11, 1919. 



icizioiiz:)! 

Have you not learned that not stocks or bonds or stately houses 
or lands or products of mill or field are our country ? It is a spirit- 
ual thought that is in our minds. It is the flag and what it stands 
for: it is the fireside and the home; it is the high thoughts that 
are in the heart, bom of the inspiration which comes of the story 
of the fathers, the martyrs to liberty; it is the graveyard into 
which our grateful country has gathered the dust of those who 
died. Here in these things is that thing we love and call our coun- 
try rather than anything that can be touched or handled. Let me 
hold the thought — that we owe a duty to our country in peace 
as well as in war. — Benjamin Harrison. 

May our children and our children's children for a thousand 
generations continue to enjoy the benefits conferred upon us by a 
united country and have cause yet to rejoice under these glorious 
institutions bequeathed to us by Washington and his compeers. — 
Abraham Lincoln. 

The power of treaties is vested jointly in the President and in 
the Senate, which is a branch of the legislature. — James Madison. 

3G 



THE POSITION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 

ON THE NEW INTERNATIONALISM 

No one leader or element of the Republican party has the power 
to determine the policies of the Republican party. The Repub- 
lican party is not a one party or a one element affair. It readily 
leaves that distinction to another great political organization, 
which does its thinking entirely under one hat. The Republican 
party is and ahvays has been a party of independence and toler- 
ance; of individual rights. The doctrines of the party are declared 
in the national and state and local platforms of the party; they 
are not oracularly handed down from on high. 

The Republican party seems to be united in the belief that Pres- 
ident Wilson owes to the country a clearer outline of his plans for 
the internationalism he proposes than have yet been given the 
people. Intelligent discussion of schemes of international rear- 
rangement not yet disclosed is impossible. It is certain only that 
no one can intelligently appi'ove a program he really knows noth- 
ing about, and no one knows anything clearly about what President 
Wilson has in mind. Eloquent generalities in favor of the true, 
the good and the beautiful, while commendable in themselves, do 
not constitute a program, and the people have discovered that 
sometimes disagreeable things are put over to the music of agree- 
able phrases. 

i'c ^ ^ ^ ^H 

An effort is being made to put the Republican party in the light 
of opposing any movement looking to the removal from the world 
of the menace of war, — of militarism and navalism. It is the same 
effort, made by the same men, that succeeded in putting over on 
the American people the biggest confidence game of modern times 
in the political campaign of 1916. Then the people were told that 
the policies of President V/ilson, the policies of unpreparedness 
and note writing, would keep us out of war. They were told this 
at a time when no one knew so w^ell as the politicians who coined 
the phrase that this was absolutely untrue. The claim made by 
many Republican leaders that the policies of the administration, 
instead of keeping us out of war, would inevitably drive us into 
war, unprepared for it, fell upon deaf ears. Because the policies 
of the administration were said to be insurance against war, mil- 
lions of well-meaning voters, anxious for peace, believed they 
would guarantee peace. The result is well known. 



AMERICANISM 

If the prog-ram, whatever it may be, President Wilson is vaguelj^ 
talking about, meant in its practical effect what his champions say 
it does, then, of course, every well meaning person would be for it ; 
the introduction of peace on earth, good will to men, the exaltation 
of humanity into a millennial state of perfection and the removal 
of all the wrongs and errors that have inflicted mankind since the 
days of Adam. Is it not entirely safe to suggest, however, in 
view of the outcome of the 1916 campaign, that the mere state- 
ment that a certain program is calculated to produce these benefi- 
cent results, does not in itself prove that it wall do so? In 1916 we 
were going to be kept out of war, and those who were against the 
administration were the advance agents of bloodshed ; but in 1917 
we were at war. Now we are being told that President Wilson's 
plans mean that this country will forever be removed from the 
shadow of war. But if any conclusion can intelligently be drawn 
from the various proposals of the Wilson program of internation- 
alism, it is that our I'isk of becoming involved in war will be tre- 
mendously increased thereby, and that, instead of being kept out 
of war, we will be kept constantly in the shadow of war by becom- 
ing partners in responsibility for the peace of nations at a time 
when there is more trouble in sight than ever before in the world's 
history. 

>;: * ^; :j! =5: 

While the people do not know, and have no means of knowing, 
since the advocates of the new internationalism disagree among 
themselves as to what it is all about, just what benefits and perils 
and responsibilities may come to them as the result of incoipor- 
ating the United States into a union for world regulation, they 
are vaguely apprehensive that what is now proposed is a radical 
departure from the American policy, operative here from the days 
of Washington; a departure which will make every home appre- 
hensive of mobilization every time a quarrel breaks out in Russia, 
in the Balkans, in the Near East or in the Oiient. The people 
of the United States knov/ that for a century and a third they 
were untouched by the international disputes which continually 
kept the peoples of the Old World anxious, M^hich necessitated vast 
standing armies, and maintained a continual game of intrigue in 
which peoples were pawns. They knov/ they were drawn into the 
European war only because of its unprecedented, world-wide sig- 
nificance. The American people believe that this terrible struggle 
has settled one thing for a century or more to come, and that is 
that no one nation can hereafter safely set out to attain world-wide 
dominion. They believe that in the peace conference there should 
be mutual and progressive limitation of armaments, a settlement 
of an international modus vivendi and the declaration of certain 
fundamentals of international law and practice. The American 
people believe that the pov/ers should exchange either individual 
or collective covenants providing for the arbitration of interna- 

38 



AMERICANISM 

tional disputes. They do not favor, however, the abdication of 
American sovereignty in favor of the sway of an international 
military and naval force, directed and commanded by powers with- 
out the United States. 

Men dominated by common sense rather than by mere sickly 
sentimentality, m.en who are not deluded by mere mouth filling- 
phrases expressive of Utopian ideals, understand that partnership 
in a concert of European and Asiatic powers would be about as 
satisfactory a guarantee of peace as membership in a Balkan 
league. To deliberately involve ourselves in the consequence of 
every European dispute would be an act of fatal folly. It is enough 
that we should be responsible to the rest of the world for our own 
acts. That we should accept responsibility for the acts of govern- 
ments with the control of which we have nothing to do, and the 
control of which is, indeed, constantly shifting from v/ithin, would 
be to accept responsibility without exercising real authority. 

* * * ;;: * 

Lurking in the l^ickground of all this program of international 
partnership, is a vaguely defined but fairly well understood plan 
of international communism, involving the merging of American 
v/ith world-wide economic interests. It is to be a partnership in 
which we, for the most part, if we rightly interpret the prospect- 
uses, are to furnish the assets and the other partners the liabili- 
ties. It is one in v/hich the American people are to m.ake the sacri- 
fices and the rest of the world reap the benefits. It is, of course, 
possible to work up considerable enthusiasm for such a project 
abroad. The schem.e is the natural outcome of the Democratic- 
Socialistic doctrine of free trade which denies that American pi-os- 
perity should be made an object in American legislation. The re- 
moval of economic barriers and the establishment of a condition 
of trade equahty among nations means, in effect, that the Amer- 
ican producer must be put on the same level as the foreign pro- 
ducer; and this, at last, means that the Araerican mechanic and 
farmer must go to the level of the coolie in a breech clout, the peon 
in a coffee sack and the peasant in rags, since it is impossible, 
from an economic standpoint, to level ninety-four per cent of the 
world up to the standard oi the remaining six per cent ratlier 
than to reverse this process. 

The American people went into the war for no selfish purpose. 
We are asking no trade or territorial advantages, and we have 
asked no indemnities of our beaten foes up to this tim.e. That we 
did not go to wai- for any selfish purpose, liowever, does not neces- 
sarily demonstrate that v.-e fought for the opportunity to rob our- 
selves of our special advantages of situation, our resources, our 
wealth, our institutions and the standards of our civilization. The 
people have borne the burdens of war loyally, uncomplainingly, 
cheerfully. That these sacrifices of theirs should be made an ocea- 

3i) 



AMERICANISM 

sion for further and gi-eater sacrifices, vitally affecting the future 
material welfare and moral greatness of this republic, attained 
through the exercise of the right to work out our own special and 
peculiar national destiny, is unthinkable. 

* -i! * * if 

A moment's reflection must convince anyone that many of those 
who throw off glib phrases about the new internationalism either 
do not believe or do not compi-ehend what they are talking about. 
While President Wilson discourses upon permanent vvorld-wide 
peace, his Secretai'y of War asks for the purchase of cantonment 
sites foreshadowing the largest army in the world, while his Secre- 
tary of the Navy proposes appropriations for the largest navy in 
the world. While British statesmen announce their acceptance of 
the plan of a league of nations, they say at the same time that 
this should be accompanied by British retention of dominant sea 
power. In these proposals we see the very wide difference between 
theorizing about a thing and putting that tiling into operation. 
Of course, if great armaments are to be maintained, either naval 
or military, the talk about guaranteeing the peace of the world by 
international agreement rather than by national force is an idle 
dream; the coupling of the two plans reduces the scheme to the 
grossest absurdity. 

The practical effect of the conversations which have been going 
on since the signing of the armistice give some suggestion of what 
is likely to happen in the future. We are maintaining a large army 
in Europe. We are maintaining a fighting force in Prussia. We 
do not know today what demands may be made tomori-ow upon 
the more than two million soldiers who remain under arms. The 
war was practically over nearly three months ago. Little or no 
progress has been made toward a peace settlement. President 
Wilson is in Europe engaged in preliminary conversations while 
many of the most pressing domestic problem.s in all American his- 
tory await at home the attention of constructive statesmanship. 
War expenditures, with the war over, continue at a greater rate 
than while the war was on. The fedeial government continues 
expenditures on a vast scale which involve the piling up of huge 
additional tax burdens on the backs of the American people, and 
largely increased governmental toll upon trade and industry, con- 
fronting the serious problems of peace time, becomes necessary. 
The situation in Europe is more complicated today than it was a 
week after the armistice was signed. Is it a spectacle which in- 
vites the American people to the perpetuation of the conditions in 
which we find ourselves involved? The formal conclusion of war 
awaits the determination of a large number of matters with which 
the war had nothing to do, and which are so much a subject of 
controversy that their determination by discussion and compro- 
mise may be delayed for many months. Meanwhile we approach, 

40 



AMERICANISM 

practically unprepared, the serious problems of peace, with the 
menace of depression and unemployment which these involve, un- 
less wise counsels prevail in national legislation and administra- 
tion. Does not all this suggest that we are taking on a little too 
much territory, and argue strongly against the permanent continu- 
ance of the policy of trying to police and control the universe, even 
in behalf of the lofty ideals so souifully professed? 

* :;: * * :;< 

Upon this proposition the Republican party is united: that the 
people of this country have had all too little part in the delibera- 
tions which have succeeded the signing of the armistice. The peo- 
ple never were asked whether or not they were fighting for the 
particular economic and political and sociological schemes we are 
now told, by apparent inspiration, constituted our cause in this 
war. Congress has not been consulted, — not even the coordinate 
treaty making power of the government, the United States Senate. 
Here is the chief source of the confusion of counsel v/hich now pre- 
vails; there has been no attempt to consult those legally charged 
with the duty of advising and consenting when international agree- 
ments are considered. After all the American people are seriously 
concerned in this subject; those who think, as well as those who 
merely record and throw back the ideas that are handed down to 
them by the rubber stamp statesmanship and journalism of the 
country, have some right to be considered and consulted in this 
matter, vitally affecting the whole body of the people, — not merely 
one party or one person. What opportunity has been given to the 
legislative representatives of the American people to be heard, 
either privately or publicly, upon the questions involved in the 
conclusion of peace and more particularly in the proposed new in- 
ternationalism ? The fact that no such opportunity has been given, 
and that, indeed, the advice of the Senate has been treated with 
ill-concealed contempt by the administration's partisans, should 
awaken those possessed by a spirit of true Americanism, to a real- 
izing sense of the change it is sought to bring over the fundamental 
character of American government. 

If ever there was, in the history of this country, a time for 
serious thinking on the part of every American citizen, rather 
than the ready acceptance of every polished phrase and glittering 
generality handed out from high places, that time is now. The 
destiny of this republic is at stake. A false step taken now can 
never be retraced. It is the duty of every citizen to think about 
these matters, so vitally affecting the future of his country, and 
to express courageously his own views rather than to parrot the 
phrases of politicians who may be deceived by the glamor that 
sometimes surrounds high places and often deludes those who 
occupy them. There are those who believe that in the working 
out of the domestic problems of the American people is a task 

41 



AMERICANISM 

large enough to try to the uttermost the capacity of American 
leadership, and that in pursuing the rainbov/ of the new fangled 
internationalism we may lead old-fashioned American nationalism 
into the bottomless pit. 
—January 18, 1919. 

[CZHOEZDI 

That our government should have been maintained in its orig- 
inal form, from its establishment until now, is not much to be 
wondered at. It had many props to support it through that period, 
which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that period 
it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment ; nov/ it is under- 
stood to be a successful one. Then, all that sought celebrity and 
fame and distinction expected to find them in the success of that 
experiment. * * * But this field of glory is harvested, and the crop 
is already appropriated. New reapers will arise, and they too will 
seek a field. It is to deny what the histoiy of the world tells us 
is true, to suppose that men of ambition and talents v/ill not con- 
tinue to spring up amongst us. And when they do, they will as 
naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion as others 
have done before them. The question then is : Can that gratifica- 
tion be found in supporting and maintaining an edifice that has 
been erected by others? Most certainly it cannot. Many great 
and good men, sufficiently qualified for any task they should under- 
take, may ever be found whose ambition would aspire to nothing 
beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a presidential chair ; 
but such belong not to the family of the lion, or the tribe of the 
eagle. What! think you tliese places would satisfy an Alexander? 
Caesar or a Napoleon ? Never! Towering genius disdains a beat- 
en path. It seeks regions .hitherto unexplored. It sees no dis- 
tinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame 
erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough 
to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of 
any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for dis- 
tinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense 
of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable, 
then, to expect that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, 
coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, 
will at some time spring up among us? And when such an one 
does, it will require the people to be united with each other, at- 
tached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to 
successfully frustrate his design. — Abraham Lincoln. 

We here highly resolve that government of the people, by the 
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. * * '•• 
From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause 
for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. — Abraham 
Lincoln. 

42 



WHY DO THEY OPPOSE DEBATE 
AND DELIBERATION? 

Can anyone give a good reason why a plan for world reconstruc- 
tion involving the destiny of the American people and of the world 
should not be a subject of debate and deliberation in the United 
States of America? 

Why is it insisted by proponents of the plans evolved at Paris, 
for the most part in secret, not by representatives of the peoples 
affected, democratically chosen, but by government functionaries 
exercising war powers, that the hastily constructed and as yet 
little understood compact, forever binding, shall be accepted with- 
out discussion and without the amount of consideration ordinarily 
given in this country to any important single question of domestic 
legislation ? 

Why is it insisted that this particular plan for a society of na- 
tions, comprising as a matter of fact only a few of the nations, 
concerning the implications of which men equally intelligent dis- 
agree, shall be adopted hurriedly, merely on the say so of its advo- 
cates that the result of the organization will be so and so? For 
instance, that it vvill keep us out of war, as the Democratic plat- 
form of 1916 did? 

Why, in the settlement of the details of a league of nations, are 
not the people or the legislative bodies of the several nations given 
opportunitj' to choose the representatives who are to work out the 
new world frame of government? Did George Washington and 
four or five men of his selection undertake to write a complete con- 
stitution for the liberated American colonies and then insist upon 
the adoption of the plan in toto? No such procedure was even 
thought of. The duly constituted legislative bodies of the several 
states elected their representatives, and these representatives 
framed a constitution v/hich was then submitted to the several 
colonial assembhes, without insistence that it be rammed ithrough 
in a few days or weeks. Such a course would have been considered 
the height of autocratic effrontery. 

The peace conference at Paris should, of course, have first settled 
the terms of peace with the central powers, and insisted upon their 
enforcement. It should then have settled such problems growing 
out of and directly related to the war as could have been adjudicat- 
ed without extended deliberation. It should have decided upon the 
general form and purpose of a league of nations, and have accorded 

4;j 



AMERICANISM 

to the legislative bodies of the governments concerned the right to 
select representatives authorized to undertake world legislation. 
This is true if we have saved the world for democracy, or even 
lived up to the conceptions of democracy prevalent in the United 
States of America for nearly a century and a half before we 
entered the war. President Wilson declares that hereafter the 
world is to be ruled by the "plain people" rather than by "select 
classes," and yet in the method of formulating the league of na- 
tions plan now presented there has been complete exclusion not 
merely of the people, but of the representatives of the people duly 
chosen for the purpose of legislating in their behalf. We have 
presented for our consideration the system of legislating by execu- 
tive ukase. 

The league of nations plan as agreed upon at Paris has elements 
of good and of evil, of safety and of danger. The claim that it is 
without merit and the claim that it is a divinely inspired charter 
of world reconstruction that is going to bring on the kingdom of 
heaven, as Prof. Herron puts it, and that it should be swallowed 
hook, line and sinker without giving it the least original consid- 
eration, even in the body charged with the duty of ratifying or 
rejecting international agreements in this country, — these two 
claims are equally unwari-anted and unpatriotic. The argument 
that this compact, which is not a peace treaty but a world consti- 
tution, must be ratified as rapidly as a billion dollars is appropriat- 
ed by a subservient Congress, in order that President Wilson may 
catch the next boat back to Paris, attaches too little importance to 
the fate of the American people and of the world, and too much 
importance to sailing dates. Up to this time the legislative repre- 
sentatives of the American people have been completely ignored 
in the proceedings at Paris. Now a tremendous claque begins the 
cry that Congress must supinelj^ succumb to the demands of the 
vast publicity organization of the national administration and the 
sundry influences joined with it in this movement to efrect v.'orld 
reconstruction in as short a time as is ordinarily devoted to boiling 
an egg, and content itself with doing the rubber stamp act again. 
We are told that if CongTess should fail to asquiesce, the admin- 
istration will appeal over the heads of the people's representatives 
to the people themselves. Well, there was a little appealing of 
this kind done in November last, v»1th a result well remembered, 
— a popular majority of a million and a half votes against tne 
appealer. 
—February 22, 1919. 



cnoElD 



Let us go on to extend the area of our usefulness, until the 
light of the stars on our banner shall shine upon five hund^-ed mil- 
lions of free and happy people." — Abraham Lincoln. 



44 



THE HERITAGE OF WASHINGTON 

Fortunate is America in the character of the man whose valor 
and genius won for this nation its independence, and whose wis- 
dom, patience and patriotism evolved, in large measure, the insti- 
tutions which pei-petuated for the American people the liberty and 
opportunity our Revolutionary forefathers fought to achieve. 

The world was full of visionary schemes of social, political and 
industrial regeneration at the moment the American colonies won 
their independence. But Washington, Tlladison, Jefferson, Frank- 
lin, Hamilton, Adams, Jay and the other giants of the Revolution- 
ary period, founded a government based not upon imagination, 
doomed to disaster at the first shock of adversity, but upon human 
nature as revealed in human history. They studied the record of 
every government in histoiy, ancient and modern, and, after long 
debate and deliberation formulated a frame of government of 
which Gladstone said that it was "the greatest v/ork ever struck 
off at a given time by the hand and brain of m.an." 

In France the overthrow of tyi-anny was followed by a debauch 
of lawlessness in which the heritage of patriotic sacrifice was wast- 
ed. But here was founded the great republic which in the succeed- 
ing years has been the world's best example of free government, 
this government of ordered liberty, the hope and the inspiration 
of democracy throughout the world. 

Never before in American history were the wise counsels of 
Washington's Farewell Address more immediately applicable to 
national affairs than they are today. As we read them again, we 
are struck with the lofty patriotism, the sound sense and the far- 
I'eaching vision which inspired them. They are the chart and 
compass by which the old ship of state should be navigated in this 
hour of storm and stress. 

Washington declared that the safety of America was best de- 
fended by its isolation from the interests and concerns of Europe. 
He saw and declared the fact that there is no such thing as disin- 
terested friendship between nations; therefore international 
alliances were undesirable, since the first clash of interest would 
dissolve them. He declared that Europe had her rivalries, hatreds 
and attachments, based upon a political and social order from 
which we fortunately had been liberated, in which we might not 
wisely or safely involve ourselves. And Washington was put to 
the test in this matter in a situation much like the present. France 
had been our ally during the Revolution, and turned to us confi- 



AMERICANISM 

dently for help in her conflict with England, after France had 
overthrown her own tyrant and grappled with the nation so le- 
cently our oppressor. The national hatred of England, the national 
sympathy for France, was appealed to by the visionaries and dem- 
agogues of that day in the effort to involve the United States in 
European entanglements. It was in the light of these recent 
events that Washington wrote his historic appeal in behalf of an 
America minding her own business and fulfilling her own destiny. 
In that appeal Washington was not unmindful of the necessity 
of providing for the national defense. He urged us "to take care 
always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, in a respect- 
able defensive posture." These are the words neither of a jingo 
nor a pacifist, but of the wisest and most unselfish soldier, states- 
man and diplomat the world has yet produced. 
—February 22, 1919. 

fcziOEZDl 



In order that this republic may become fully independent it 
must become not merely politically, but also industrially independ- 
ent; for, broadly considered, political fi-eedom is not so much an 
end as a means ; it is not a goal, but a starting point. In the pres- 
ence of false industrial and economic systems political freedom 
can not avail. After inducing the mass of the people to indulge 
in high aspiration, to believe in the principles of our immortal 
Declaration that "all men are created equal," to understand that 
here they are living under no system of caste, that the people con- 
stitute the government, and that all opportunities are open to the 
least among them, it is vain to say that they must be content to 
live in conditions of misery identical with those which surround 
the subjects of despotic governments who have never drank in the 
spirit of liberty. We must not say to our people, "Aspire, be 
proud, be independent — and live in squalor." 

To be independent in the true and full sense a nation must be- 
come self-sustaining. Its work must be done by its own people on 
its own soil. In the means of livelihood of its citizens it must be 
independent of all the world. It should not leave them subject to 
the shifting, uncertain and antaongistic policies of foreign gov- 
ernments. A great people should possess themselves of all the 
arts and industries of civilization. — Senator John P. Jones, of Ne- 
vada, in U. S. Senate Sept. 10, 1880. 

It has been the policy of the United States since the foundation 
of the government to cultivate relations of peace and amity with 
all the nations of the world, and this accords with my conception 
of our duty now. 

We have cherished the policy of non-interference with the affairs 
of foreign governments, wisely inaugurated by Washington * * * 
content to leave undisturbed with them the settlement of their 
own domestic concerns. — William McKinley. 

46 • 



WHY NOT A NATIONAL BILL OF RIGHTS IN THE 
PROPOSED WORLD CONSTITUTION? 

The sudden ending of the great war left in existence the most 
powerful league of nations t]\e world has ever known. It was com- 
posed of a score of nations united by a great common cause, and 
fighting for common ends fully understood. It was within the 
power of that league of nations, in the determination of the terms 
of peace stipulated for the ending of the war, to settle at the 
council table every problem affecting and affected by the war, and 
thereby to give the world assurance that these problems, at least, 
would not again menace its peace. 

But the Paris peace conference, largely because of the influence 
of President Wilson, has failed to do the natural and essential 
things incident to a peace council. It has scarcely touched its 
hand to the work of adjusting the economic, territorial and mili- 
tary problems presented at the war's ending ; today these problems 
are more serious, the peace of the world is therefore now more in 
jeopardy, than it was the day the annistice was signed. Through 
the insistence of President Wilson the peace conference has left 
undone the things it ought to have done; the time of the confer- 
ence has been expended in developing a scheme of world govern- 
ment, a task which belonged, not to a peace conference, composed 
of men whose commissions are based upon military exigency, but 
to a legislative body representative of the peoples affected.^ The 
peace conference had a clear commission to settle the problems 
immediately growing out of the war ; it had no commission what- 
ever to write a new constitution for the world, though it might 
properly have called into being an international legislative body 
charged with this duty. 

The people of this country favor a court of nations for the 
arbitration of international disputes and the reduction of arma- 
ments. They notice, in connection with President Wilson's league 
scheme, that it is considered entirely consistent with the plan that 
one of the constituent nations is to maintain the mastery of the 
seas through the ownership of the world's most powerful navy. 
The people are not sure, therefore, that even in exchange for the 
surrender of national sovereignty apparently involved, v/e are to 
be insured against vv^ar, or the rule of force. But if we are to be- 
come members of a world league, the people of this country un- 
doubtedly favor the inclusion in the world constitution of certain 

47 



AMERICANISM 

reserved powers of American nationality. Such reserved rights 
for the individual and the state governments were found essential 
to the acceptance of the American Constitution. These are found 
set forth in the first ten amendments, and are known as the "bill 
of rights" of the Constitution. They include provisions for free- 
dom of speech and the press, the right to bear arms, right of trial 
by jury, etc. There are certain national rights which opponents of 
the league of nations schem^e as proposed believe are menaced un- 
der its pro\asions, but which its fiiends say are not by any reason- 
able intei-pretation threatened. 

Then let there be included in this constitution of the league of 
nations, a bill of national rights something like this: 

"Nothing in this constitution shall be interpreted: 

"To supplant tlie Monroe Doctrine ; 

"To substitute international for national sovereignty; 

"To impair or destroy the rights of American citizens at home 
or abroad; 

"To limit the right of the American people to determine for 
themselves their own domestic policies, particularly those bearing 
upon the tariff and immigration; 

"To involve the United States in any war without the specific 
approval of the American Congress; 

"To abrogate any guarantee of the American Constitution.; 

"To impose any liability for policing or financing of any foreign 
government or territory, not authorized by the American Congress; 

"To prevent the United States from maintaining as large a navy 
as any other power; 

"To prevent the American government from withdrawing from 
the proposed league of nations, by giving reasonable notice of in- 
tention, whenever the league operates to the serious impairment 
of just American rights and interests." 

If there are no hidden dangers in the proposed constitution of 
the league of nations, what possible objection can there be to the 
clear setting forth, within the document, of the things the Ameri- 
can people would not surrender except through deception? 

The seed, not of peace, but of war, is in any goveramental com- 
pact which leaves unsettled differences which may become irrecon- 
cilable. The greatest war ever waged in the world, prior to the 
present war, was the American Civil war. It was fought, neces- 
sarily, because the American Constitution failed to settle two fun- 
damental questions: human slavery, and the right of secession. 
With this precedent in view, foolish indeed would be the policy of 
accepting the proposed constitution of a league of nations without 
settling, so far as is possible, every question vvhich in the future 
might, if left undetermined, present to this country the alterna- 
tives of war, unequally waged, or the sacrifice of American funda- 
mentals. 
—March 1, 1919. 

48 



SEEDS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT 
LEFT IN THE GROUND 

The creation of a new fabric of international government will 
not save the world from the danger of conflict unless there be, at 
the very beginning a meeting of minds upon fundamental ques- 
tions liable to become subjects of dispute. The United States 
Constitution, although it was a compact which created a single 
nation of people speaking one tongue and having common tradi- 
tions, and on the whole, common interests, did not keep the Amer- 
ican people out of war, because it failed to settle what was the most 
perplexing national problem at the time the compact was made, 
and became more and more difficult as time went on. The ques- 
tion of the right of a state to secede and of the right of the system 
of human slavery to continue was not settled in the Constitution, 
and it had, at last, to be settled by the sword in the greatest war 
in history up to the time of the beginning of the present World 
war. 

It is very clear that the Paris peace conference has side-stepped 
almost every problem growing out of the war. It has not even 
settled the terms of peace. It has not attempted to fix new boun- 
daries. It has made no decision upon the question of reduced 
armaments. It has done nothing toward settling what, so far as 
this country is concerned, is likely to become the most menacing 
of problems, — that of the rights of the yellow race and the rela- 
tionship of Japan to China and the Orient in general. Every day 
that has been permitted to go by since the signing of the armis- 
tice has made the settlement of these vital questions more diffi- 
cult. Nothing, absolutely nothing, has been settled; all that has 
been done is to propose a form of v/orld government in which this 
nation is to have one vote out of nine, at the beginning, in the 
settlement not only of European and Asiatic problems, but of the 
problems of this hemisphere. 

Before the American people bind themselves to accept decisions 
upon matters of peculiar American concern by a body dominated 
by European and Asiatic powei's, there should be some under- 
standings not yet reached. It is not understood in the United 
Kingdom that the formation of this league is to prevent Great 
Britain from maintaining an array of one million and a navy able 
to dominate the seas. Coincident with the submission of this 
plan guaranteed to keep us out of war, we are told that we must 

49 



AMERICANISM 

have a vast navy and army. Not only is it the right, but it is 
manifestly the duty of the American people to discuss the vital 
problem now before them. The whole people must live with tlie 
consequences of this proposed compact. They should have some 
opportunity to deliberate upon it and decide upon its terms, and 
those who oppose such deliberation and decision must be prompted 
by ulterior motives. 
—March 1, 1919. 



CZIOEZD 



It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We 
are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the 
song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the 
part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for 
liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, hav- 
ing eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so 
nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever 
anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole 
truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. I have but one 
lamp by which my feet are guided ; and that is the lamp of experi- 
ence. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. 
— Patrick Henry. 

Washington clearly discriminated between alliances that would 
entangle and those that would not, and between alliances that 
were permanent and those that were temporary. Justly construed, 
Washington's utterances are as wise today as when they were 
made, and are no more applicable to the United States than to any 
other nation. It must be the policy of every state to avoid alli- 
ances that entangle, while temporary and limited are better than 
genei-al and permanent alliances because friends and partnei's 
should be chosen in view of actually existing exigencies rather 
than in reliance upon doubtful forecasts of the uncertain future. 
—Richard Olney, 1900. 

Before the expiration of his last Presidential term, he (Wash- 
ington) gave us his paternal advice, which, if duly attended to. 
will forever preserve to us the inheritance of freedom. Let us 
pursue this advice, and never depart from it; it is addressed to 
us ail; it is addressed to every American. "Let just and amicable 
feelings, devoid of all partialities and antipathies, regulate your 
conduct with all nations; guard against the interference of for- 
eign nations in your internal concerns." In this advice, our Wash- 
ington still lives ; in this bequest the father of our country, to the 
whole American people, our Washington will forever live, in the 
hearts and minds of all patriots over the whole "globe; and his ven- 
erable name will descend with unfading glory, down the perpet- 
ual succession of time, through ages of ages. — Joseph Blyth, 1800. 

50 



SHALL WE BE DELIVERED TO AN 
INTERNATIONAL AUTOCRACY? 

What the American people want is the world-wide rule of jus- 
tice. What the Smuts-Wilson league of nations scheme provides 
is the world-wide sway of force. 

What the Am.erican people asked and expected, following that 
prompt decision of the immediate issues of the war which, to the 
world's peril, has been denied it, was a charter of international 
law, interpreted by a court of nations, "composed," as Colonel 
Roosevelt said, "of representatives from each nation, these repre- 
sentatives being sworn to act as judges in each case, and not in a 
representative capacity." 

What they are offered is a world parliament, bound by no guar- 
antees of fundamental reserved national rights ; a world autocracy 
governed by a majority on the basis of interest; that majority 
being alien in interest and spirit to this republic. 

A spokesman of the administration (Senator Hitchcock) says 
that this pact creates "a powerful legislative, executive and judi- 
cial body." It does. Alexander Hamilton said that the combina- 
tion of all, or any two of these powers in one body was "the 
essence of tyranny." Montesquieu said that such a combination 
was "destructive of liberty." This scheme embodies the socialist 
theory of the state; government by an autocracy claiming the 
right to exercise unlimited authority over those subject to its 
jurisdiction as compared with the republican idea of government 
by the majority, restrained by checks and balances guaranteeing 
deliberative decision, and limited by the reserved rights of the 
individual,- — or in this case of the nation member of this proposed 
world state. 

Put forward in the name of peace, it pledges us to enter every 
war which alien decision may make ours. 

Put forv/ard in the name of justice, it binds us on penalty of 
armed invasion to the acceptance of every arbitrary decision, 
right or wrong, of the trustees and masters of mankind constitut- 
ing this com.bination of king, congress and court to which has 
been affixed the alluring title of "League of Nations," which may 
through the growth of its now vaguely defined powers become the 
plague of nations. 

It destroys the greatest political corporation in the world to 
merge it with every bankrupt governmental concern on earth in 

51 



AMERICANISM 

an international company wherein we are to enjoy the well known 
privileges of a minority stock holder in a company controlled by 
one's competitors. 

Of all the conflicting claims and ambitions, designs and deserts 
of nations, the seeds of future conflict, it settles none, nor does 
it require nations to lay down their arms. 

It tramples the Declaration of Independence, it destroys the 
American Constitution. It is nothing that it claims to be; it is 
all that it claims not to be. 

The American people ask for the rule of right. This scheme 
enthrones the rule of might. 

We have won "a war for democracy" only to be asked to deliver 
this republic into tlie control of an international autocracy. 
—March 8, 1919. 

Icznoizz)! 



We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest por- 
tion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, 
and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government 
of a system of political institutions conducing more essentially to 
the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history 
of former times tells us. We. when mounting the stage of exist- 
ence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental 
blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of 
them ; they are a legacy bequeathed to us by a once hardy, brave 
and patriotic but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. 
Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess 
themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, and 
to uprear upon its hills and its valleys a political edifice of liberty 
and equal rights. It is ours only to transmit these — the former 
unprofaned by the foot of an invader, the latter undecayed by the 
lapse of time and untorn by usuipation — to the latest generation 
that fate shall peiTnit the world to know. This task, gratitude to 
our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for 
our species in general all imperatively lequire us faithfully to per- 
form. — Abraham Lincoln. 

The nations of America are equally sovereign and independent 
with those of Europe. They possess the same rights, independent 
of all foreign interposition, to make war, to conclude peace, and to 
regulate their internal affairs. The people of the United States 
cannot, therefore, view with indifference attempts of European 
powers to interfere with the independent action of the nations on 
this continent. 

The American system of government is entirely different from 
that of Europe. * * "• We must ever maintain the principle that 
the people of this continent alone have the right to decide their 
own destiny. — James K. Polk. 



THE NEED OF THE WORLD 

The fundamental wrong in the plan for a league of nations now 
proposed is that it establishes, not a world court but a world gov- 
ernment. 

It establishes, not the sway of justice, but the reign of force. 

It creates, not a body of international law, to govern the rela- 
tions of nations, and a court to construe that law in each instance 
of dispute, but a world legislature, or executive world autocracy. 

The people of the world want disarmament as the only certain 
guarantee of world peace; mutual disarmament; this proposed 
constitution of a league of nations does not provide it; it merely 
binds the American people to the acceptance of whatever decisions 
may be made upon this matter by a world legislature, — no matter 
what that decision may be. 

The people of the v/orld want wars to end ; but this constitution 
of a league of nations settles none of the many problems which 
now menace the world's peace. On the contrary, it leaves them 
all unsettled, but binds the American people to the acceptance of 
any settlement that may be made, in a world legislature dominated 
by alien interests, regardless of whether or not American interests 
and ideals, or the welfare of Americans in general, are sacrificed 
in that settlement. 

The American people are willing to dip their flag to justice, but 
not to force, regardless of whether that force is behind a righteous 
or an unrighteous cause. 

The Paris peace conference should settle the terms of peace with 
the central powers, should settle the questions growing immediate- 
ly out of the present war, should propose a code of international 
law and a world court, composed of men of such legal ability and 
standing that, nominated by each of the nations, signers of the 
compact, they would be ratified by all the rest, to interpret that 
code of general principles in its application to every international 
dispute. To the enforcement of the decrees of such a court every 
nation should pledge itself. 

The supernational government, as proposed in the league of na- 
tions, represents only the sway of numbers, not the reign of wis- 
dom or of right. The court of nations would represent the rule of 
justice. The proposed league of nations is founded upon the so- 
cialistic idea of the sway of brute force, regardless of equity. It 
would, if adopted, mark, not the ending, but the beginning of per- 
petual warfare with the people of this country obH.gated to pai'tici- 



AMERICANISM 

pate in every war as well as to surrender the national independence 
achieved by Washington and preserved by Lincoln. 
—March 8, 1919. 

fcmoEZDl 



Unhappy Europe! The judgment of God rests hard upon thee! 
Thy sufferings would deserve an angel's pity if an angel's tears 
could wash away thy crimes ! The Eastern Continent seems trem- 
bling on the brink of some great catastrophe. Convulsions shake 
and terrors alarm it. Ancient systems are failing; works reared 
by ages are crumbling into atoms. Let us humbly implore Heaven 
that the wide-spreading desolation may never reach the shores of 
our native land, but let us devoutly make up our minds to do our 
duty in events that may happen to us. Let us cherish genuine 
patriotism. In that, there is a sort of inspiration that gives 
strength and energy almost more than human. When the mind 
is attached to a great object, it groves to the magnitude of its 
undertaking. A tioie patriot, with his eye and his heart on the 
honor and happiness of his country, hath an elevation of soul that 
lifts him above the rank of ordinary men. To common occurrences 
he is indifferent. Personal considerations dwindle into nothing in 
comparison with his high sense of public duty. In all the vicissi- 
tudes of fortune, he leans with pleasure on the protection of Prov- 
idence and on the dignity and composure of his own mind. While 
his country enjoys peace, he rejoices and is thankful; and, if it 
be in the counsel of Heaven to send the storm and the tempest, 
his bosom proudly swells against ttfe rage that assaults it. Above 
fear, above danger, he feels that the last end which can happen 
to any man never comes too soon if he falls in defense of the laws 
and liberties of his country. — Daniel Webster. 

This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign institutions, 
the dear purchase of our fathers, are ours; ours to enjoy, ours to 
preserve, ours to transmit. Generations past and generations to 
come hold us responsible for this sacred trust. Our fathers, from 
behind, admonish us, with their anxious paternal voices ; posterity 
calls out to us, from the bosom of the future; the world turns 
hither its solicitous eyes; all, all conjure us to act wisely and faith- 
fully, in the relation which we sustain. 

If we cherish the virtues and the principles of our fathers Heav- 
en will assist us to carry on the work of human liberty and human 
happiness. Auspicious omens cheer us. Great examples are be- 
fore us. Our own firmament now shines brightly upon our path. 
Washington is in the clear, upper sky. These other stars have 
now joined the American constellation; they circle round their 
center, and the heavens beam with new light. Beneath this illum- 
ination let us walk the course of life, and at its close devoutly com- 
mend our beloved country, the common parent of us all, to the 
Divine benignity. — Daniel Webster. 

54 



THE ALTERNATIVE TO THE LORD 
CECIL-WILSON LEAGUE 

The statement that those who oppose the Lord Cecil-Wilson 
plan for a league of nations thereby give evidence of their oppo- 
sition to international action with a view to minimizing the danger 
of war, is false and unpatriotic. 

The assumption that those who favor the Lord Cecil-Wilson 
plan for a league of nations, which President Wilson says the 
American people must accept v/ithout change, are more anxious 
than others to keep this country out of war is just as unfair and 
as unpatriotic as the cry, in 1916, that "a vote for Hughes means 
w^ar, a vote for Wilson means peace," — a cry, be it remembered, 
in which President Wilson himself led. 

War never had as few friends or apologists in the United States 
as it has today, and with good reason. The American people knew 
something of the horrors of the battlefield, but thej^ never dreamed 
of the horrors of v^^ar administration of civil affairs as exem.plified 
by the present administration. They never knew what use could 
be made of a condition of war to fasten upon the country, as war 
measures, ventures in state socialism.; how far an administration 
could go in restricting freedom of speech and of the press ; in coer- 
cion and confiscation ; in the domination of public opinion through 
propaganda and control of the channels of information ; in aggres- 
sions of the executive upon the legislative branch of government ; 
in extravagance and inefficiency and Vv^aste. The sort of adminis- 
tration the Democratic party has furnished the country in the 
last two years has at least done one thing : It has made hell popu- 
lar as compared with the civilian conditions accompanying war as 
waged by a Democratic administration. 

Those v/ho oppose the Lord Cecil-Wilson plan for a league of 
nations do so on the ground that while it may decrease the number 
of wars on other continents, it vs^ill increase the number of wars in 
which we of America will become involved. They oppose an in- 
ternational arrangement which forfeits the right of this republic 
to determine for itself what v/ars it will and will not enter, and 
involves the necessity of furnishing men and money to fight battles 
in which the American people have no direct, national interest. 

The alternative to a league of nations is a court of nations ; to a 
super-state the alternative is a world supreme court, with a fixed 
code of fundamental international law for the guidance of the 

55 



AMERICANISM 

nations. It is the sway of justice the Amei;ican people desire, not 
the erection of a world parliament to make decisions by majorities, 
based upon interest rather than equity, and in which we are to 
hold but a minority membership. The nations which have fought 
the present war to a victorious conclusion aie com.petent to write 
that code of international law and to create a world court for its 
application to individual cases of conflict. Beyond this, but two 
things are needed; a voluntary pledge by the associated powers, 
an enforced pledge by the rest, properly guaranteed, for submis- 
sion to a supreme law which does not invade the domestic rights 
of any nation, or sacrifice its sovereignty in any essential respect : 
second, progressive disarmament, begun at once, — a thing not 
definitely provided for in the proposed league of nations covenant, 
but without which any so-called peace program becomes the m.erest 
farce. 

This is the alternative, — but what chance is there for the Ameri- 
can people to present it? What attention is paid, or has been 
paid, either to the people or their legislative representatives? We 
are told that whatever is done in Paris, without consulting more 
than one man in the United States, must be accepted here, because 
peace will not be permitted until the schem.e proposed is swallowed 
in its entirety regardless of its content or its consequences. 

That the American people and the American Senate, charged 
with joint responsibility in the formulation of treaties, have been 
permitted to bear no part in the proceedings at Paris, is no fault 
of either the people or the Senate. Their very existence has been 
ignored. Who is to blame for this? Does the determination to 
put through a plan to Europeanize Am.erica in accordance with 
the program of the socialist International mean the saving of the 
world for democracy or the deliverance of this country to autoc- 
racy ? If the people and the constitutional authorities of the Uni- 
ted States are ignored in the creation of a world parliament, what 
may we expect as to the part they will play in the operation of 
the w^orld state, should it be established? 
—March 15, 1919. 



CZIOIZID 



I thank God that America abounds in men who are superior to 
temptation, whom nothing can divert from a steady pursuit of the 
interest of their country, v/ho are at once its ornament and safe- 
guard. And sure I am I should not incur your displeasure if I paid 
a respect so justly due to their much honored characters in this 
place; but, when I nam.e an Adams, such a numerous host of fel- 
low-patriots rush up to my mind that I fear it would take up too 
much of your time should I attempt to call over the illustiious 
roll ; but your grateful hearts will point you to the men ; and their 
revered names, in all succeeding times, shall grace the annals of 
America.— John Hancock. 

56 



WILSON VETOES PEACE 

In a Paris cablegram dated March 17, and published in the 
United States two days later, Frank H. Simonds, the most reliable 
of all American correspondents now in Europe, and not unfriendly 
to President Wilson, makes the astounding statement that when 
President Wilson returned to Paris, he found that an agreement 
had been unanimously made by all representatives at the peace 
conference, including his associates on the American delegation, 
to perfect a preliminary peace with Germany on March 21st. This 
preliminary peace was to include military, naval, economic and 
geographic terms. It was intended by the conference to be in 
substance the final peace treaty, exclusive of the league of nations 
constitution. There had been no difference of opinion in the peace 
conference in arriving at this conclusion, Mr. Simonds says, and 
there was no feeling on the part of the American delegates that 
this action was intended to defeat the league of nations by indirec- 
tion or to evade the question even temporarily. The sole idea was 
to end the war, stop the growing unrest in Europe, enable the 
belligerent countries to demobilize their armies and get back to 
work at the earliest moment possible without awaiting the discus- 
sion and decision of features of the proposed world constitution. 

Upon the arrival of President Wilson, Mr. Simonds says, he 
abruptly and imperatively vetoed the program, overruling the 
entire membership of the peace conference. He issued a denial 
of the statement authorized by M. Pichon that such an agreement 
had been reached and asserted that it would not be permitted. By 
so doing he assumed responsibility for continuing a state of w^ar 
for at least two months, possibly longer, and to that extent delayed 
the return of American troops to the United States and the cessa- 
tion of the vast expenditure incident to keeping a huge American 
army in Europe. The preliminary peace treaty will be postponed 
until April, and President Wilson will not, if he can prevent it, 
permit peace to be declared finally before the American Senate is 
forced to accept a final peace treaty into which the Cecil-Wilson 
league of nations plan is so interwoven that it will be impossible 
to separate the two. 

It is evident that in so doing President Wilson made the peace 
and safety of Europe secondary to his desire for a triumph in his 
proposed battle with the American Senate, this in turn, according 
to Nomian E. Mack, of the Democratic national committee, to be 
made the basis of a third term candidacy for the Presidency. In 



AMERICANISM 

other words, President Wilson fears that the Cecil-Wilson scheme 
will not secure the approval of the American people on its own 
merits. He fears to permit it to stand alone. He is determined 
that the American people shall have no hand in the framing of 
the new world constitution, and he proposes to offer them the 
alternative of swallov/ing the scheme as he brings it home, or per- 
mitting the continuance of a state of war. It is scarcely necessary 
to make comment upon such a situation, but if the old spirit of 
Americanism is not dead, it will find expression. 
—March 22, 1919. 

IcmoEZDl 

Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are 
such, because I think a general government necessary for us, and 
there is no form of government but what m.ay be a blessing to 
the people, if well administered; and I believe, further, that this 
is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can 
only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when 
the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic govern- 
ment, being incapable of any other. I doubt, too, v^hether any oth- 
er convention we can obtain, m.ay be able to make a better consti- 
tution. For when you assemble a number of men, to have the ad- 
vantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those 
men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, 
their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assem- 
bly can a perfect production be expected ? It therefore astonishes 
me, sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it 
does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, v/ho are waiting 
with confidence to hear that our counsels are confounded, like 
those of the builders of Babel, and that our states are on the point 
of separation, only to meet, hereafter, for the purpose of cutting 
one another's throats. — Benjamin Franklin. 

The genius of our institutions, the needs of our people in their 
home life, and the attention which is demanded for tlie settlement 
and development of the resources of our vast territory, dictate the 
scrupulous avoidance of any departure from that foreign policy 
commended by the history, the traditions, and the prosperity of 
our republic. It is the policy of independence, favored by our posi- 
tion and defended by our known love of justice and by our own 
power. It is the policy of peace suitable to our interests. It is 
the policy of neutrality, rejecting any share in foreign broils and 
ambitions upon other continents and repelling their intrusion here. 
It is the policy of Monroe, and of Washington, and Jefferson — 
"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations ; entan- 
gling alliance with none." — Grover Cleveland. 



58 



DEMOCRATIC DETERMINATION OF A 

WORLD CONSTITUTION 

Speaking at a Democratic party rally in New York, Secretary of 
the Navy Daniels, declared that Congress had committed itself to 
the Cecil-Wilson plan for a league of nations when, in 1916, it 
passed a resolution inviting all the great governments of the 
v>'orld to send representatives to a conference, to be held at the 
close of the war, which should "be charged with the duty of 
formulating a plan for a court of arbitration or other tribunal, to 
which disputed questions between nations shall be referred for 
adjudication and peaceful settlement." 

Not only does this plan not coincide with the Cecil-Wilson 
scheme for a league of nations, but its distance from it brings into 
clear view the defects of the plan President Wilson, without the 
advice or consent of the Senate or the American people, insists 
upon putting over, without discussion or decision upon its merits. 

First, this resolution contemplated the settlement, by the na- 
tions involved, of the issues growing out of the war, before enter- 
ing upon negotiations for the creation of a tiibunal of arbitration. 

Second, it contemplated the formulation of the permanent plan, 
by more than one man acting on behalf of this country, without the 
consent and against the advice of the branch of government consti- 
tutionally charged with joint responsibilitj^ in the framing of intei- 
national obligations. Not enough emphasis has been placed upon 
the undemocratic and unrepublican procedure of President Vv^ilson 
in connection with the formulation of the league of nations plan. 
The initiation of a peace treaty is constitutionally his responsibil- 
ity, though an understanding of and sympathy with the letter and 
spirit of the Constitution v/ould i-equire that even in this matter 
President Wilson should follow the example of his predecessors 
and not only consult the Senate, but appoint representatives of 
that body upon the peace commission. On the contrary, Pi-esident 
Wilson chose the personnel of this delegation entirely from among 
his own personal follovving, and on the same principle that a cele- 
brated Shakesperean actor is said to have always picked his cast, 
— to form a background of mediocrity upon which genius v/ould 
shine the more brilliantly. 

3ut the creation of a league of nations is clearly a legislative 
function, and it is utterly out of harmony with the spii'it of Ameri- 
can institutions oi' with democracy itself for one man to take upon 

59 



AMERICANISM 

himself, without legislative sanction, the sole duty and responsibil- 
ity of writing the constitution of such a league. Just as the vari- 
ous state assemblies chose the delegates to the American constitu- 
tional convention, so should Congress, or the people even more di- 
rectly, choose the representatives of the United States in a body 
charged with world legislation. Mere executive domination of 
such a body is, of course, the height of autocratic usurpation. It 
is not clear that in the new vs'orld congress that is proposed, the 
representatives of the nations will not be chosen by their several 
executives ; indeed, the procedure in the present peace conference, 
which has converted itself on its own motion into a constitutional 
convention for the entire world, would seem to contemplate that 
our representatives in the world legislature thus to be created 
shall represent, not the people, not the national Congress, not the 
government, but the executive only; it is natural, of course, for 
Secretary Daniels to assume that when the word "government" is 
used, the executive and his appointed ministers only are referred 
to. 

Third, the Cecil-Wilson plan for a league of nations does not 
comply with the expressed will of Congress as set forth in the 
resolution of 1916; on the contrary, it violates it. The proceed- 
ings at Paris do not contemplate what Congress suggested, name- 
ly, a court or other tribunal of arbitration, but it provides a world 
government combining in one body, after the fashion of autocracy, 
legislative, executive and judicial powers. This Vv'orld government 
is to settle the affairs of nations by combined force, rather than 
by equity. It imposes upon the United States obligations and re- 
sponsibilities, involves it in sacrifices and perils no one dreamed of 
suggesting prior to the time President Wilson began to assume, 
acting in the capacity of government of the United States, that it 
w^as up to us to assume the trusteeship for Asia, Europe, Africa 
and the islands of the sea, and for tliese alien continents to share 
trusteeship over the American people. 

The people of this country would be glad to have the intent of 
this congressional resolution of 1916, as quoted by Secretary Dan- 
iels^ followed out to the letter. They would like to see the belliger- 
ent powers settle the questions arising out of the war, that they 
may not be left in the ground as the seed of future conflict. They 
would like to see a world conference called, composed of repre- 
sentatives of the nations of the world, with a view to writing a 
just code of international law and establishing a tribunal to in- 
terpret it, and to provide for progressive disarmament and peace- 
ful means of enforcing the decrees of the v/orld court. But they 
want this plan evolved as the result of debate and deliberation in a 
world convention composed of representatives duly chosen by the 
peoples and congresses of the various nations of the world, not 
merely of diplomatic and military puppets of potentates and pow- 
ers, selected without the advice or consent of the peoples or their 

GO 



AMERICANISM 

constitutional legislative representatives. That a world constitu- 
tion should be the mere by-product of a peace conference acquiring 
its authority only from military exigency, is a fine commentary 
upon the doctrine that we have been saving the world for democ- 
racy. No procedure so grossly violative of the fundamentals of 
democracy has been undertaken since the time when a few grand 
monarch s assumed the responsibility of governing the affairs of 
the world in their own persons. That it should gain the acquies- 
cence of any considerable number of people in this country proves 
that the worst horror of war is not in the list of killed and wound- 
ed. It is in that departure, under the stress of war, from the 
mental attitude and procedure consistent with free institutions 
which those who acquire war powers are likely to consider war- 
rant for a continuance of that autocracy even free peoples loyally 
endure while the need exists. 
—March 22, 1919. 



It is a good thing for all Americans, and it is an especially good 
thing for young Americans to remember the men who have given 
their lives in war and peace to the service of their fellow country- 
men and to keep in mind the feats of daring and personal valor 
done by some of the champions of the nation in the various crises 
of her history. Thrift, industry, obedience to law, and intellectual 
cultivation are essential qualities in the make up of any successful 
people; but no people can be really great unless they possess also 
the heroic virtues which are as needful in time of peace as in time 
of war, and as important in civil as in military life. * * ''• 
"^ America will cease to be a great nation whenever her young men 
cease to possess energy, daring and endurance, as well as the wish 
and the power to fight the nation's foes. No' citizen of a state 
should wrong any man; but it is not enough merely to refrain 
from infringing on the rights of others ; he must also be able and 
willing to stand up for his own rights, and those of his countiy 
against all comers, and he must be ready at any time to do his full 
share in resisting either malice domestic or foreign levy. 

Patriotism should be an integral part of our every feeling at all 
times, for it is merely another name for those qualities of soul 
which makes a man in peace or in war, by day or by night think 
of his duty to his fellows, and of his duty to the nation through 
which their and his liftiest aspirations must find their fitting ex- 
pressions. — Theodore Roosevelt. 

The rapid extension of our settlements over our territories here- 
tofore unoccupied, the addition of new states to our confederacy, 
the expansion of free principles, and our rising greatness as a na- 
tion are attracting the attention of the powers of Europe, and 

(il 



AMERICANISM 

lately the doctrine has been broached in some of them of a "bal- 
ance of power" on this continent to check our advancement. The 
United States, sincerely desirous of preserving relations of good 
understanding v^^ith all nations, can not in silence permit any Euro- 
pean interference on the North American continent, and should 
any such interference be attempted will be ready to resist it at any 
and all hazards. 

It is well known to the American people and to all nations that 
this government has never interfered with the relations subsisting 
between other governments. * * * We have not sought their terri- 
tories by conquest; we have not mingled with parties in their 
domestic struggles ; and believing our ovrn form of government to 
he the best, we have never attempted to propagate it by intrigues, 
by diplomacy, or by force. We may claim on this continent a like 
exemption from European interference. The nations of America 
are equally sovereign and independent with those of Europe. They 
possess the same rights, independent of all foreign interposition, 
to make war, to conclude peace, and to regulate their internal 
affairs. The people of the United States cannot, therefore, view 
with indifference attempts of European powers to interfere with 
the independent action of the nations on this continent. The Amer- 
ican system of government is entirely different from that of 
Europe. Jealousy among the different sovereigns of Europe, lest 
any one of them might become too povv^erful for the rest, has 
caused them anxiously to desire the establishm.ent of what they 
term the "balance of power." It can not be permitted to have any 
application on the North American continent, and especially to the 
United States. We iriust ever maintain the principle that the 
people of this continent alone have the right to decide their owi 
destiny. 

In the existing circumstances of the \yorld the present is deemed 
a proper occasion to reiterate and reaffirm the principle avowed 
by Mr. Monroe and to state my cordial concurrence in its wisdom 
and sound policy. The reassertion of this principle, especially in 
reference to North America, is at this day but the promulgation of 
a policy which no European power should cherish the disposition 
to resist. Existing rights of every European nation should be re- 
spected, but it is due alike to our safety and our interests that 
the efficient protection of our laws should be extended over our 
whole territorial limits and that it should be distinctly announced 
to the world as our settled policy that no future European colony 
or dominion shall with our consent be planted or established on 
any part of the North American continent. — James K. Polk. 

Interest in public affairs, national, state and city, should be 
ever present and active and not abated from one year's end to the 
other. — William McKinley. 

G2 



SHALL OUR AMERICA BE EUROPE ANIZED? 

It will soon be four hundred years since the Pilgrim Fathers 
braved the perils of a wintry sea to find civil and religious liberty 
in a new land, a land of hardship and of peril, but a land of free- 
dom. 

They turned their backs upon a Europe covered with "the rot- 
ten survivals of bygone circumstances," preferring the freedom 
of a far wilderness to the slavery of citizenship in the Old World. 
They, and those who, from similar motives and with similar hopes 
and aspirations, came after them, laid broad and deep the founda- 
tions of a new social and political order. 

Finally there was reared upon these foundations "the young 
republic of the west." It became the world's one great working 
model of deliberative democracy, where liberty safeguarded by 
law developed the civilization we call American. 

Long regarded as "the American experiment," this new nation, 
"dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal," this 
"government of the people, for the people, by the people," at 
length became the richest and strongest as well as the freest of 
earth. 

When European civilization faced a crisis brought upon it by 
the continuance, through centuries, of hatreds and rivalries based 
upon racial and dynastic and commercial conflict, as well as by 
the clash of conflicting ideals, it was America whose duty and op- 
portunity it became to enter the conflict and crush the aspiration of 
a great military power to become a new Rome and bestride the 
world like a Colossus. 

Surely such a history should thrill any American with the 
thought of his citizenship, and cause him to hesitate before sur- 
rendering any of the things which have made Americans Liberty's 
"peculiar people." 

But it is true that for years there has been in this countiy a 
formidable movement for the Europeanization of America. 

It has been carried on by a variety of elements ; by those of re- 
cent alien origin v/ho have been unable to forget their allegiance 
to some European fatherland, to give up some centuries-old tradi- 
tion of believing their own particular culture better than that of 
other peoples or that of their adopted country ; by the people who 
think it a sign of superiority to affect the belief that anything for- 
eign is better than the home brand, whether that be clothing or 
culture, a class t^^pified by the New England professor whose press 

G3 



AMERICANISM 

agent announced, a few years ago that he was the only American 
possessing culture in the European sense of the term; by econo- 
mists and politicians who have imported their text books and their 
programs from Europe; by toady journalists and publicists who 
have thought American institutions and ideals too "smelly" of the 
woods and fields, and have become European colonials in spirit ; by 
persons of too little faith in genuine democracy and think tone 
v\^ould be given to our social and political order by titles and 
decorations; by people who have inherited the instincts either of 
peasantry or of aristocracy and believe both labor and leisure 
should constitute a basis of permanent caste, M-ith every man 
"knowing his place ;" by the agents and spies and press agents and 
lobbyists of alien and international commercial and political and 
financial interests, working under camouflage through all sorts of 
publications and organizations and never in the open with a re- 
vealed motive ; by people who, being too lazy or too lacking in con- 
fidence to think for themselves, want a super-man to do the job for 
them and for others as a sort of American Kaiser, the embarrass- 
ments of legislative bodies being eliminated. 

We have our aliens in spirit among the professors and among 
the protetariat.. Some have imported their ideas and some have 
brought them along with them in the steerage. We have our par- 
lor aliens who think it vulgar to be American; and our cellar aliens 
who still reek with the scent and the sentiment of the European 
purlieus; they are vvings of the same army, however, and the 
wings flap together. 

The work of Americanization in this country should begin at the 
top rather than at the bottom. 

The recently arrived alien, speaking a foreign tongue, is not to 
be blamed if he fails to grasp the meaning of America and Ameri- 
canism. This is especially true because in the dozen years prior 
to the war such people heard little talk and read little in the news- 
papers or magazines in behalf of American ideals, or American 
institutions, or American achievements ; the seamy side of Ameii- 
canism, rather than the face of the fabric in which is v/oven its 
real story and its real message, was constantly held up before 
them by the yellovA^ press, the yellow politician, the parlor and the 
cellar socialist. 

The class Vv^e need to educate in this country, a class for v/hich 
there is no particular excuse, is composed of those who have en- 
ioyed to the full the advantages and opportunities this country 
offers but who have so totally missed the point of it all in their 
devotion to European conceptions of things, that they have talked 
of this country as only a vulgar plutocracy which needs to have a 
"new freedom" conferred upon it, a new freedom consisting of the 
jargon of European socialist and free trade pamphleteers, a phras- 
eology which, when translated into a program, consists, as we 

64 



AMERICANISM 

have learned by experience, of mere sound and fury, signifying- 
nothing. 

It is not surprising as we face, at the Paris peace conference, 
problems which fundamentally affect Americanism as ingi'ained 
Americans understand it, we suffer the effects of years of agita- 
tion by this cult of American infidelity. If the Europeanism of 
caste and class be, as they affect to believe, better than American- 
ism, why attempt to preserve the distinctive features of Ameri- 
canism which our forefathers believed were safe only because a 
broad ocean rolled between us and entanglement with the affairs 
of princes and proletarians in a world as unlike our own, in many 
essentials, as the planet of Saturn? Why not throw in our lot 
with a hemisphere in which patriotism attaches more to a class or 
a caste than to a country or a people ? Why not transfer this sys- 
tem of caste and class to America? Why not, as Lowell said, turn 
the prow of the Mayflower back 

"Toward Europe, entering her blood-red eclipse?" 
—March 29, 1919. 



EXTRACTS FROM JEFFERSON'S WRITINGS 

We have a perfect horror of everything like connecting our- 
selves with the politics of Europe. — To Wm. Short, 1801. 

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our 
motto.— To T. Lomax, March, 1799. 

We wish not to meddle with the internal affairs of any country, 
nor with the general affairs of Europe. — To C. W. F. Dumas, 1793. 

The fundamental principle of our government is never to en- 
tangle us with the broils of Europe. — To iVI. Coray, 1823. 

I know that it is a maxim with us, and I think it a wise one, 
not to entangle ourselves with the affairs of Europe. — 1787. 

Better keep together as we are, haul off from Europe as soon 
as we can, and from all attachments to any portions of it. — To 
John Taylor, 1798. 

All entanglements with that quarter of the globe (Europe) 
should be avoided if we mean that peace and justice shall be the 
polar stars of the American societies. — To J. Correa, 1820. 

I join you in a sense of the necessity of restoring freedom of the 
ocean. But I doubt, 'with you, whether the United States ought to 
join in an armed confederacy for that purpose; oii rather, I am 
satisfied they ought not. — To George Logan, 1801. 

Our nation has wisely avoided entangling itself in the system 
of European interests; has taken no side between its rival powers, 
attached itself to none of its ever-changing confederacies. — Reply 
to address of Baltimore Baptists, 1808. 

I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never 
to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political in- 

«5 



AMERICANISM 

terests are entiiely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, 
their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forma 
and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are 
nations of eternal war. — To President Monroe, 1823. 

It ought to be the very first object of our pursuits, to have noth- 
ing to do with the European interests and politics. Let them be 
free or slaves at will, navigators or agricultural, swallowed into 
one government or divided into a thousand, we have nothing to 
fear from them in any form. — To George Logan, March, 1801. 

About to enter, fellow citizens, on the exercise of duties which 
comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you 
should understand what I deem the essential principles of this 
government, and consequently, those which ought to shape its ad- 
ministration. I v/ill compress them in the narrov/est compass they 
will bear. Equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state 
or persuasion, religious or political ; peace, commerce, and honest 
friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the 
support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most 
competent administrations for our domestic corxeins, and the 
surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preserva- 
tion of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, 
as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a 
jealous care of the right of election by the people ; economy in the 
public expense, that labor may be iiglitly burdened ; encouragement 
of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of 
information, and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public 
reason ; freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of 
pei'son. These principles form the bright constellation v\'hich has 
gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution 
and reformation. The wisdom of cur sages and blood of cur heroes 
have been devoted to their attainment; they should be the creed 
of our political faith ; the text of civic instruction ; the touch stone 
by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we 
wander from them in moments of error and alarm, let us hasten to 
retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, 
liberty and safety. — From Jefferson's first inaugural address. 

The institution of government, to be lav/ful, must be pacific, 
that is, founded upon the consent, and by the agieement oi" thoso 
who are governed; each nation is exclusively the judge of the gov- 
ernment best suited to itself, and no other nation can justly inter- 
fere by force to impose a different government upon it. The first 
of these principles may be designated as the pnnciple of liberty — 
the second as the principle of national independence. They are 
both principles of peace and of good v/ill to men. — John Quinev 
Adams. 1823. 



DOES MR. WILSON SEEK TO THWART PEOPLE'S 
DESIRE FOR WORLD PEACE? 

The theory is advanced, in the hght of the recent announce- 
ment of President Wilson's third term candidacy, that Mr. Wilson 
may not be so anxious for the formation of a league of nations, as 
for putting his adversaries in a hole by framing up a plan the 
Senate could not conscientiously accept, and then going to the 
country with the plea that he had been thwarted in an attempt to 
keep the country out of war once more, through permanent inter- 
national arrangement. 

While this paper is not fully prepared to accept this theory, it 
is evident that if President Vv^ilson v/ere determined upon prevent- 
ing the consummation of an international arrangement for safe- 
guarding the world's peace, he could not adopt a course more cun- 
ningly calculated to further such an end. 

Ninety-five percent of the people of the United States favor 
some form of international ariangement which will constitute as 
near absolute insurance against war as it is humanly possible to 
attain. As to principle, there is unity of sentiment; as to the 
means by which this puipose is to be achieved, there are divergent 
views. 

As a whole-hearted advocate of joint action of the nations to 
prevent war, the natural course of President Wilson M^ould have 
been to coordinate and unify public opinion in the United States, 
the nation he represents at the peace table, and the nation which, 
because of the disinterested character established by American 
diplomacy in our century and third of national life, and because 
of the unique and determinative part America has played in the 
war, has been in position to exercise so tremendous an influence 
upon the negotiations proceeding at Paris, 

What President Wilson has done has been calculated, if not in- 
tended, to divide rather than unify public sentiment in the United 
States. He has taken the position that he, and he alone, among 
all the hundred millions of people who go to make up the United 
States, is entitled to think, speak or act upon this problem, so 
vital in its influence upon the destiny of this republic and of the 
world. He has assumed an attitude, not merely of indifference, 
but of defiance, toward that branch of the national legislature, 
representative of the people, charged with joint responsibility in 
the making of treaties. Far from acting, as the Constitution pre- 

67 



AMERICANISM 

scribes, with the advice and consent of that body, his effort has 
been to exclude the Senate from any degree of participation in 
the formulation either of the treaty of peace or the evolution of a 
world constitution. He has openly joined battle with the Senate 
in this matter, although he knows that the ratification of the 
treaty by the Senate is essential to its adoption. He has insisted 
that no peace treaty should be submitted which does not contain 
within it his plan for a world constitution so inextricably inter- 
woven that the separation of the treaty and the constitution would 
be impossible. 

President Wilson knows that the people of this country are as 
anxious for peace today as they were in 1916 when he proclaimed 
to the country the doctrine that the election of Hughes meant v/ar 
and his re-election meant peace. He is again playing upon and 
with this sentiment. He is endeavoring to make it appear that 
only through the adoption of his particular plan is it possible to 
have either immediate or permanent peace. He is attaching his 
particular scheme for a league of nations, which millions of Ameri- 
cans believe involves a sacrifice of our national independence and 
the permanent peril of war, as a rider to the peace treaty. He is 
saying to the American Senate and the American people: "You 
must swallow this treaty as it stands, without change or amend- 
ment, on peril of assuming responsibility for preventing any sort 
of league or court or tribunal of nations." 

Is this a constructive, or a destructive, position? Is it a demo- 
cratic or an autocratic procedure? Is it calculated to promote, 
or to destroy, the prospect of a permanent arrangement for the 
safeguarding of the world's peace. Are we, by President Wilson's 
course, losing or gaining friends am^ong the nations of the world, 
and thereby are we decreasing or increasing the danger of future 
wars? Are we helping or hindering Europe in the restoration of 
peace and order by taking the responsibility, through President 
Wilson, of delaying for months the settlement of the questions 
growing out of the war, and which are now flaming forth in fight- 
ing in several quarters in Europe? 

Has President Wilson no friends in the United States who com- 
prehend the situation, are courageous enough to tell him the truth, 
and influential enough to induce him to adopt a course which will 
promote, rather than prevent, the realization of the American 
people's hope for a righteous and an enduring peace? The people 
of this country are not so easily deceived as is evidently imagined. 
They are beginning to understand that the real friends of an in- 
ternational peace covenant consistent with American traditions 
and American welfare are those who wish this matter determined 
in American fashion, by the coordination and unification of Amer- 
ican public opinion, and not the one man who sets himself up as 
master and dictator of the situation, refuses to permit the consid- 
eration of any plan but his own particular proposal, who throws 

68 



AMERICANISM 

the gauntlet into the faces of those who question the wisdom or 
safety of some features of his particular plan. 

If there should fail to come out of this war an international 
agreement for disai-mament, the ending- of war, and the judicial 
determination of international disputes, the responsibility will rest 
upon the wilful one who offers to the American people the alterna- 
tive of no plan for peace at all, or the particular plan he has 
brought home from Europe, with the admonition to "take it or 
leave it alone." A plan which millions of Americans believe to be 
a remedy worse than the disease it is advertised to cure. 

Therefore, if it be in the mind of President Wilson to make a 
campaign issue of his course, it would be well for him to diop the 
methods of autocracy and adopt those of representative democ- 
racy. The American people are in the habit of settling vital na- 
tional issues for themselves, and not to have their laws and trea- 
ties handed down to them from on high. They are willing to ac- 
cept the leadership, but not the domineei'ing miasterj'- of their 
President. The issues pi-esented by the effort to exclude the peo- 
ple and their constitutionally cliosen representatives from parti- 
cipation in the fashioning of what may prove to be the most im- 
portant state document in history, is in this free land, greater 
than the i:^siie involved in the covenant itself. 
—March 29, 1919. 

fc=3onZD| 



An incident, fi-om which we may derive occasion for important 
rejections, was the attempt of the Pilgrims at Plymouth to estab- 
lish among them that community of goods and of labor, which 
fanciful politicians, from the days of Plato to those of Rousseau, 
have recommended as the fundamental law of a perfect republic. 
This tb-eory results, it must be acknov/ledged, from principles of 
reasoning most flattering to the human character. If industry, 
frugality and disinterested integrity v/ere alike the virtues of ail, 
there would apparently be more of the social spirit in making all 
property a common stock, and giving to each individual a propor- 
tional tit^e to the wealth of the whole. Such is the basis upon 
which Plato provides, in his republic, the division of property. 
Such is the system upon which Rousseau pronounces the first roan 
who enclosed a field vv'ith a fence, and said, this is mine, a traitor 
to the human species. 

A wisei' and more useful philosophy, however, directs us to con- 
sider man aceoi'ding to the nature in which he v/as foi-med; sub- 
ject to infirmities, which no wisdom can remedy; to weaknesses, 
which no institution can strengthen ; to vices, which no legislation 
can correct. Hence it becomes obvious that separate property is 
the natural and indisputable right of separate exertion ; that com- 
m.unity of goods without community of toil is oppressive and un- 
just; that it counteracts the laws of nature, which prescribe that 

69 



AMERICANISM 

he only who sows the seed shall reap the harvest ; that it discour- 
ages all energy, by destroying its rewards, and makes the most 
virtuous and active members of society the slaves and drudges 
of the worst. Such was the issue of this experiment among our 
forefathers, and the sam.e event demonstrated the error of the 
system in the elder settlement of Virginia. 

' Let us cherish that spirit of harmony which prompted our fore- 
fathers to make the attempt, under circumstances more favorable 
to its success than, perhaps, ever occurred upon earth. Let us no 
less admire the candor with which they relinquish it, upon discov- 
ering its irremediable inefficacy. To found principles of govern- 
ment upon too advantageous an estimate of the human character, 
is an error of inexperience, the source of which is so amiable that 
it is impossible to censure it with severity. We have seen the 
same mistake committed in our own age, and upon a larger theater. 
Happily for our ancestors, their situation allowed them to repair 
it before its effects had proved destructive. — John Quincy Adams. 

So through the night rode Paul Revere; 

And so through the night went his cry of alarm 

To every Middlesex village and farm — 

A cry of defiance and not of fear, 

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, 

And a word that shall echo forevermore! 

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, 

Through all our history, to the last. 

In the hour of darkness and peril and need. 

The people will waken and listen to hear 

The hurrying hoof -beats of that steed, 

And the midnight message of Paul Revere. 

Henry W. Longfellow. 

I ask each of you to remember that he cannot shove the blame 
on others entirely, if things go wrong. This is a government by 
the people, and the people are to blame ultimately if they are mis- 
represented, just exactly as much as if their worst passions, their 
worst desires are represented ; for in the one case it is their supine- 
ness that is represented exactly as in the other case it is their vice. 
Let each man make his weight felt in supporting a truly American 
policy, a policy which decrees that we shall be free and shall hold 
our own in the face of other nations. — Theodore Roosevelt. 

Shall we regard with indifference the great inheritance which 
cost our sires their blood because we find in their gift an admix- 
ture of imperfection and evil? Surely there is good enough, m the 
contemplation of which every patriotic heart may say "God bless 
my own, my native land." — James A. Garfield. 

70 



SHALL AMERICA BE EUROPEANIZED, 
OR EUROPE AMERICANIZED? 

The fundamental error of some men conspicuous in national and 
world leadership at this time is that, with an inadequate compre- 
hension and appreciation of the true meaning and message of 
Americanism, they have undertaken to Europeanize America rath- 
er than to Americanize Europe. 

The great American example, no longer an experiment, points 
the way to permanent world peace througli sane nationalism rath- 
er than internationalism; through the federalization of states on 
the representative principle, into larger groups as the first step 
toward that parliament of man which the poets have dreamed of, 
but which cannot be brought to pass except through the removal 
of ancient obstacles now being multiplied and exaggerated rather 
than minimized. 

The motto of the republic, "Out of many, one," gives expression 
to the message of Americanism which even some conspicuous 
Americans do not seem to comprehend. Out of many states, one 
nation ; out of many races, religions, tribes and tongues, one people. 

America has taken all the conflicting strains of Europe and has 
combined them into the American blend. It has produced homo- 
geneity out of a mass which in Europe remains heterogeneous, to 
that continent's constant peril. America has pointed the world the 
way to the true internationalism, — the subordination of racial and 
religious and class and caste lines to the national ideal, the com- 
mon sense ideal of common interest and common safety and com- 
mon progress. 

Travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Lakes to 
the Gulf and one will find in this country a population which on 
the whole looks alike, talks alike and thinks alike. What has been 
achieved here is little less than a miracle, when it is remembered 
that our sources of population run into every quarter of the globe, 
and particularly into every community in Europe. It has been 
demonstrated by the readiness with which people slough off their 
age-old prejudices and characteristics, and mingle with the gen- 
eral current of American ci\'ilization, that the barriers erected 
between peoples and localities and classes in Europe are artificially 
maintained. 

Travel a few hours in Europe and one will come face to face 
M'ith a naif dozen complete and many partial differentiations of 

71 



AMERICANISM 

peoples ; differences extending even to physical and mental charac- 
teristics. Europe is separatist in the extreme sense. This ten- 
dency is manifest even within nations. There are such differences 
in dialect among the peasants even of little England, that the in- 
habitants of some counties with difficulty understand the inhabi- 
tants of other counties. Scotland, Wales, Ireland, — these tell a 
story of stubborn clinging to ancient tongue, custom, tradition and 
prejudice. 

This separateness, this aloofness of Europe, extends to the 
whole social and political order. Political formations are stratified, 
— and ossified. The peasantry, the miiddle class, the aristocracy, 
the proletariat, the bourgeoisie, the junker, — these are terms 
wiiich reflect the intra-nation tendency toward separateness, and 
as these numerous nations, with their racial and dynastic and ter- 
ritorial and trade rivalries and hatreds, have long glared at each 
other across their borders, and meanwhile trained armies and 
navies for the business they knew was coming, so these separate 
classes have been in a state either of armed neutrality or of civil 
war. 

Europe has had, not too little, but too much self determination 
of peoples. Where this hiving system has been most thorough, — 
in the Balkans, — the trouble started. Servia, Montenegro, Al- 
bania, Bulgaria, Roumania, Greece and Turkey in Europe carried 
on the curtain raisers for the great war. These wars were fought 
with a savagery beyond our comprehension, and when the govern- 
ments involved were too poor to buy modern armament, the fight 
was carried on with primitive v/eapons until populations had been 
decimated. There was a fundamental reason for this, independent 
of the historic causes. No one of these countries is big enough, or 
strong enough, or well governed enough, to possess economic inde- 
pendence. Sovereign politically, they have been unable to find at 
home the soil, or the resources, or the play for enterprise and labor, 
necessary to an independent national existence. 

The processes of modern civilization have so tremendously de- 
creased distance that Europe has become like a crowded tenem.ent ; 
each family more or less a nuisance to its strongly individualized 
neighbor. The system Europe attemipts to maintain, — that of a 
country, a flag, a language and a civilization for each tribe or tong, 
has collapsed. National boundaries have expanded to the bursting 
point under the pressure for independent national existence. Ger- 
many, aiTned to the teeth, wanted more territory and especially 
more markets obtainable only over the dead bodies of prostrate 
neighbors, — and so the war began. 

A century and a third ago the United States of America achieved 
political independence ; cut loose from Europe and Europe's rival- 
ries and hatreds, — just as much a menace to peace today as they 
were when Washington and Jefferson declared the determination 
of the new republic to avoid alien entanglements. Political free- 

72 



AMERICANISM 

dom attained, the fathers of the repubhc set out to achieve the 
economic independence of the nation, through protective legisla- 
tion, festering domestic manufacturing and agricultural interests, 
through the development of a merchant marine, and the creation 
of a home market for American production, with am.ple American 
production for that home market. Only twice in our earlier his- 
tory was there resort to the methods of Europeanism in the United 
States, — both times by the same elements in American life, — the 
war upon Mexico vv^ith its consequent acquisition of territory, and 
the Civil v/ar, with the effort to place local above national inter- 
ests, and reproduce on American soil this system of self deter- 
mined sectionalism. 

Why do not those ambitious for the erection of a super-state 
ask Europe to follow the great American example and try it on? 
Y/hy not the United States of Europe before the fate of this coun- 
try is thrown in v/ith that of the rest of the v/orld, and a universal 
sovereignty is attempted? Can v/e by treaty remove the danger 
of war which lurks constantly in this European system, and, while 
this continent, north of the Mexican border, has enjoyed ten times 
as many years of peace as of war, has given the nations of Europe 
ten times as many years of war as of peace? 

The people of America v/ant peace. The road to peace does not 
lie through the devious pathv/ays of European intrigue or the 
shambles of European conflict. The people of this country insist 
upon such a settlement of the v/ar, such an arrangement for the 
adjudication of international disputes hereafter, that this nation 
may never again be thrown into the voitex of European conflict. 
This will come about, however, not through making ourselves a 
part of the European system, or underv/riting the peace of Eu- 
rope, at the sacrifice of our own peace, under that v;ar-breeding 
system. The people of this republic v/ant Am.erica to remain 
American. 
—April 5, 1919. 



During th.e administration of President Monroe this doctrine of 
the Farewell Address was first considered in all its aspects and 
with a view to all its practical consequences. The Farev/eli Ad- 
dress, while it took America out of the field of Eui'opean politics, 
v/as silent as to the part Europe might be permitted to play in 
America. Doubtless it was thought the latest addition to the 
family of nations should not make haste to prescribe rules for the 
guidance of its older members, and the expediency and propriety 
of serving the powers of Europe with notice of a complete and dis- 
tinctive American policy excluding them from interference with 
American political affairs miglit v/ell seem dubious to a generation 
to whom the French alliance, with its manifold advantages to the 
cause of American independence, was fresh in mind. * * * The 



AMERICANISM 

Monroe administration, however, did not content itself with formu- 
lating a correct rule for the regulation of the relations between 
Europe and America. It aimed at also securing the practical bene- 
fits to result from the application of the rule. Hence the message 
iust quoted declared that the American continents were fully occu- 
pied and were not the subjects for future colonization by European 
powers. To this spirit and this purpose, also, are to be attributed 
the passages of the same message which treat any infringement 
of the rale against interference in American affairs on the pai-t of 
the powers of Europe as an act of unfriendliness to the United 
States. It was realized that it was futile to lay down such a rule 
unless its observance could be enforced. It was manifest that the 
United States was the only power in this hemisphere capable of 
enforcing it. It was therefore courageously declared not merely 
that Europe ought not to interfere in American affairs, but that 
any European power doing so would be regarded as antagonizing 
the interests and inviting the opposition of the United States. — 
Richard Olney, 1895. 

This is now the United States — that colossus of power, that 
colossus of liberty, that colossus of the spirit of nations, which in- 
vites all men from the four corners of the globe to come hither, 
and find here a refuge from oppression ; here to find inexhaustible 
resources for the development of industry and enterprise ; here to 
add each an item from his intelligence, his virtue, his strength — 
to add the atom of his own individual capacity to the vast total 
of the untiring enterprise and industry of the people of the United 
States. This is the point at which we now stand; and I repeat 
that it is to no trivial question of the past, it is to no exhausted 
passions of the past, that we of this day are confined. Our flight 
is into other elements. Our duty is for other objects. It is, gen- 
tlemen, in the confidence of our strength ; for force is, of itself, the 
irrepressible instinct of action. 

He who is strong, who feels coursing in his veins the blood of 
maturity and vigor, needs action and must have action. It is the 
very necessity and condition of existence. 

I say, then, we are strong in our territorial extent; strong in 
the vast natural resources of our country ; strong in the vigorous 
men and in the fair women who inhabit it ; strong in those glorious 
institutions which our fathers of the Revolution transmitted to 
us ; but above all, strong, stronger, strongest, in the irrepressible 
instinct of patriotic devotion to country which burns inextinguish- 
ably, like the vestal fire on its altars, in the heart of every Ameri- 
can. — Caleb Cushing. 

The first duty of an American citizen or of a citizen of any 
constitutional government, is o})edience to the constitution and 
laws of his country. — Stephen A. Douglas. 

74 



LET THE WORLD CONSTITUTION BE 
CONSTITUTIONALLY WRITTEN 

This paper protests again against the thoroughly undemocratic 
and unrepublican methods employed to put over on the people of 
this country a world constitution and a world parliament. These 
objections apply with equal force whether the constitution pro- 
posed be the mere beginning of a super-state, or whether it be the 
fully panoplied world autocracy outlined in the Cecil-Wilson cove- 
nant, with legislative, executive and judicial powers combined in 
one world parliament, in which this country was to have but a 
feeble minority voice. 

The suspicion persists that there is an Ethiopian in the wood- 
pile in any hand-me-down, made-in-Europe plan for a league of 
nations, in which the American people are not given the right of 
original suggestion; which represents, in the making, the usurpa- 
tion of legislative powers by the executive branch of this and 
other governments, without giving to the people of this country, 
supposed to be a representative republic, any voice whatever in 
framing a world constitution, the most important document ever 
presented for their consideration. 

The people of this country have been accustomed to bearing a 
hand in the framing of the laws which bind them. Their constitu- 
tion was not handed down to them from on high; it was written 
by the representatives of the states, duly chosen for that particu- 
lar purpose, and then referred for ratification to the representa- 
tives of the people in the several states. This hand-me-down 
method of writing constitutions and laws exemplified in the pro- 
cedure of the Paris conference is familiar enough in Europe, where 
governments and not the people are the sources of authority, but 
it is an absolutely new experience here. That such a procedure is 
defended by anybody in the United States is evidence that "the 
wiles of foreign influence" and the seduction of alien ideals are at 
work in America to the possible undoing of the republic. 

Why is it seriously "proposed that the question of whether the 
people of this country shall underwrite the political and financial 
and commercial solvency of the rest of the world, and bind them- 
selves to duties and responsibilities and burdens and possible sac- 
rifices and dangers vaguely defined, shall be decided in a military 
council, assembled for the purpose of formulating terms of peace 



75 



AMERICANISM 

after a great war, a body totally unrepresentative in a legislative 
waj''? 

Would it not be the natural and the leg:al procedure for this 
body to settle the issues of the war, leaving- the establishment of 
a world constitutional convention, and the election of the members 
thereof, to the various governments of the world, in accordance 
with their usual procedure in such matters ? For instance, should 
not the legislative representatives of the United States in such a 
body be chosen by the Congress of the United States, rather than 
by the executive 'merely? Is it not an act of the most supreme 
assurance, the most flagrant usmpation, for this peace conference 
to dodge all the problems properly falling within its jurisdiction, 
and turn instead to the task, never committed to it, of writing a 
constitution for a world government, throwing over on this pro- 
posed v/orld government the vast and perilous unsettled business 
the Paris peace conference does not seem to have the courage or 
capacity to fmish? 

We say this question of usurpation of authority to write a world 
constitution and give the people of this republic no initiative in its 
formulation, tliis organized effort so apparent throughout the 
country to hush criticism, prevent discussion and hurry action; 
this manifest determination to deprive even the United States 
Senate of its constitutional part in the framing of treaties; this 
feverish, wholesale, strongly organized and heavily financed propa- 
ganda against deliberation and in favor of implicit consent to any- 
thing suggested by authority; all this ought to arouse in every 
American the firm determination that with so much at stake, the 
people and th.e Congress of the United States MUST have some- 
thing to say in the frammg of this document, rather than be con- 
tent with the poor satisfaction of humbly suggesting minor 
amendments. 

The Paris peace conference should long ago have settled prob- 
lems arising out of the war. It should have settled them many 
weelis ago. It would have settled them long ago except for the 
stubborn persistence of certain men, acting entirely in a personal 
capacity, in neglecting the real work of the conference in order 
to take up a clearly usurped function of framing a world constitu- 
tion. By this course the w^hole fabric of civilization, at least in 
Europe, has been endangered. 

It is not too late to remedy this frightful error, originating in 
the spirit of autocracy, that spirit this war was fought to over- 
throw. Let the peace conference settle the war problems. Let the 
allied peoples and governments vv'hich have won the right to lead- 
ership in this work of building bulwarks for the defense of v/orld 
peace, elect through their representative legislative bodies real 
representatives of the popular sentiment of these several nations. 
Let these men deliberate'y and intelligently debate and decide, 
with due deference to American public opinion, upon a proposed 



AMERICANISM 

plan for the permanent preservation of the world's peace ; wheth- 
er or not they want an international court, inteipreting a compre- 
hensive code of international law, or a world legislature. Let dis- 
cussion of this vitally important project be encouraged, rather 
than discouraged. This is democracy. This is republicanism. Any 
other course is autocracy, not to be accepted by any free people 
whose sense of responsibility has not been blunted by the aggres- 
sions of tyrannical usurpation. 

There is a right way and a wrong way of going about this mat- 
ter. We want no world constitution, full of vague generalities, 
advocated on the ground of good intentions on the idiotic theory 
that contracts should be signed first and considered afterward. 
We want no patch-work world constitution, with an amendment 
stuck on here and there to hide the blemishes and allay the sus- 
picions of the people. We want an "open covenant, openly arrived 
at" in the old-fashioned American way, in which the people, 
through their duly chosen representatives, exercise initiative in 
formulating the proposed world constitution. 

This, it seems to us, is the most fundamental issue involved 
in this whole matter. It is a question of representative govern- 
ment as against autocratic usurpation. It is a question of bring- 
ing to bear upon this question the power of deliberate public opin- 
ion in a country which has become accustomed to this method of 
settling questions vitally affecting the destiny of the American 
people, as this one does so peculiarly. 

liet the thirty -nine senators who signed the new Declaration of 
Independence, and the other senators in sympathy with their posi- 
tion, take their stand here. 

Get peace quickly ; get a world constitution deliberately, and in 
the democratic-republican way. 

If we are true to the traditions of this republic, and of free 
government in general, there is no other road for us, as Americans, 
to travel. 
—April 12, 1919. 



The Monroe Doctrine may be abandoned; v/e may forfeit it by 
taking our lot with nations that expand by following un-American 
ways; we may outgrow it, as we seem to be outgrowing other 
things we once valued ; or it may forever stand as a guarantee of 
protection and safety in our enjoyment of free institutions; but 
in no event will this American principle ever be better denned, 
better defended or more bravely asserted than was done by Mr. 
Olney in this dispatch, * * * The doctrine upon which we stand is 
strong because its enforcement is important to our peace and 
safety as a nation, and is essential to the integrity of our free 
institutions and the tranquil maintenance of our distinctive form 
of government. It was intended to apply to ever3'' stage of our 

77 



AMERICANISM 

national life, and cannot become ol^solete while our republic en- 
dures. If the balance of power is justly a cause for jealous anx- 
iety among the governments of the Old World and a subject for 
our absolute non-interference, none the less is the observance of 
the Monroe Doctrine of vital concern to our people and their gov- 
ernment. * '•' '■' Holding that an engagement to share in the obli- 
gation of enforcing neutrality in the rem.ote valley of the Congo 
would be an alliance whose responsibilities we are not in a position 
to assume, I abstain from asking the sanction of the Senate to 
that general act. * ='' * This incident and the events leading up to 
it signally illustrate the impolicy of entangling alliances with for- 
eign powers. * * * It has been the settled policy of the United 
States to concede to people of foi-eign countries the same freedom 
and independence in the management of their domestic aif airs that 
we have alv^'ays claimed for ourselves. — Grover Cleveland. 

I have always, from my earliest youth, rejoiced in the felicity of 
my fellow-men; and have ever considered it as the indispensable 
duty of every member of society to promote, as far as in him lies, 
the prosperity of every individual, but more especially of the com- 
munity to which he belongs, and also as a faithful subject of the 
state, to use his utmost endeavors to detect, and having detected,, 
strenuously to oppose every traitorous plot v^'hich its enemies may 
devise for 'its destruction. Security to the persons and properties 
of the governed is so obviously the design and end of civil govern- 
ment that to attempt a logical proof of it would be like borrowing 
tapers at noonday to assist the sun in enlightening the world ; and 
it cannot be either virtuous or honorable to attempt to support a 
government of which this is not the great and principal basis ; and 
it is to the last degree vicious and infamous to attempt to support 
a government which manifestly tends to render the persons and 
properties of the governed insecure. Some boast of being friends 
to government; I am a friend to righteous government founded 
upon the principles of reason and justice, but I gloiy in publicly 
avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny. — John Hancock. 

Liberty can be safe only when suffrage is illuminated by educa- 
tion. For a man to feel that every impulse for laudable ambition 
must be strangled at its birth, that like fabled Enceladus he has 
been rived by the thunder-bolt of power and crushed beneath the 
mountain of 'its strength, is more than this human nature of ours 
can endure. What wonder then that ever and anon, when free- 
dom turns the wearv side — the fires of devouring vengeance burst 
forth and shake the fabrics of the old world, till tyrants chatter 
on their gilded thrones in idiotic terror. At such moments, free- 
dom may seem to have triumphed there, but when the fury of the 
tempest* is past she lies bleeding — Samson-like — beneath the ruin 
she has wrought. — James A. Garfield. 

78 



WANTING NOTHING, WE TRADE 
EVERYTHING TO GET IT 

President Wilson's "dramatic victory" for t!ie Moni'oe Doctrine 
in the Paris peace conference reminds one of the achievement of 
the country editor, who, in giving an account of his victory over a 
belligerent visitor, wrote: 

"Fixing our hair in his hands and our nose securely between 
his teeth, we held on until help arrived." 

The amendment adopted reads: "The covenant does not affect 
the validity of international engagements, such as treaties of 
arbitration, or regional understandings like the Monroe Doctrine, 
for securing the maintenance of peace." 

The Monroe Doctrine is not an "engagement." It is the declared 
policy of the United States, never given the force of an agreement 
with any other nation. As the Monroe Doctrine is not an agree- 
ment, and is not made so by the proposed covenant, this declara- 
tion is like saying: "Nothing in this covenant shall be construed 
as invalidating the lav/ against a man blowing his nose on a windy 
day." There is no such law, therefore it cannot be validated or in- 
validated by such a declaration. 

What this amendment does validate, however, as the delegates 
from China pointed out, is the Lansing-Ishii secret agi'eement rec- 
ognizing the "special interests" of Japan in China. The Japanese 
have persisted in the claim that the Monroe Doctrine, applied to 
Asia, means that Japan shall have commercial if not political suzer- 
ainty in China. Evidently our delegation at the peace conference 
assents to this preposterous theory. The complement of our claim, 
set up in the Monroe Doctrine, that Europe shall not establish new 
possessions in the United States and thus involve us in the Euro- 
pean system from which until recently it was thought desirable to 
remain free, is that the United States shall not grab territory in 
this hemisphere. We have followed that policy, chronic libelers of 
American motive to the contrary notv/ithstanding. We are the 
protectors, not the oppressors, of the republics of the western 
hemisphere. Japan's intei-pretation of the Ivlonroe Doctrine is the 
right to acquire, by governmental action, exclusive trade privileges 
in China, to operate and police China's railroads, — to prevent China 
from making treaties without her consent. This bears no more 
resemblance to the Monroe Doctrine than the Kaiser does to Pat- 
rick HenrJ^ 

79 



AMERICANISM 

The "dramatic victoiy" so reverently chronicled by the press 
ag-ents was, therefore, not a victory for the Monroe Doctrine of a 
western hemisphere free from imperialistic ag-gression, but for the 
Lansing-Ishii doctrine of an Asia delivered into the hands of im- 
perialistic aggression. 

As was once said: "We want nothing at the peace conference." 
We seem to be trading off at this conference not only the inde- 
pendent sovereignty of the United States and our freedom from 
the European system, but the sovereignty of the republic of China, 
formed in emulation of the great American example. And trading 
it all off for the nothing we went over to Paris to get. 
—April 19, 1919. 



cnorzD 



I have not allowed myself to look beyond the union, to see what 
might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly 
weighed the chances of preserving liberty when the bonds that 
unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed 
myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with 
my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor 
could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this gov- 
ernment, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, 
not how the union may be best preserved, but how tolerable might 
be the condition of the people when it should be broken up and 
destroyed. 

While the union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying pros- 
pects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that 
I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that, in my day at 
least, that curtain may not rise! God grant that on my vision 
never may be opened what lies behind! When my eyes shall be 
turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see 
him shining on the broken and dishonoured fragments of a once 
glorious union. Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather 
behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and hon- 
oured throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and 
trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or 
polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such 
miserable interrogatory as "What is all this worth?" nor those 
other words of delusion and folly, "Liberty first and union after- 
wards;" but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living 
light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and 
over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that 
other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, — Liberty and 
union, now and for ever, one and inseparable ! — Daniel Webster. 

Heroes did not make our liberties, they but reflected and illus- 
trated them. — James A. Garfield. 

80 



THE KEYNOTE OF THE WORLD CONSTITUTION 

The keynote of the peace conference, and of the world govern- 
ment for which it has prepared a constitution, is sounded in the 
delivery of the Chinese province of Shantung, with its forty mil- 
lion people, its ports, railways, and resources into the hands of 
Japan, the "title" of Germany thereto, identical in validity with 
Germany's title to Belgium, being thus confirmed. It is as if we 
had delivered Belgium, over her protest, to France, in confirma- 
tion of the German occupation. Thus is betrayed the "idealism" 
expressed in so many high-sounding pronunciamentos. Thus are 
the professions of the Fourteen points cast to the winds, as 
against, not an enemy, but a friend; not against a militaristic 
power, but in behalf of one, and against a sister republic. 

Thus the Hay policy of the open door in China and of China's 
territorial integrity and national sovereignty is abandoned; thus 
the doctrine of the rights of weak peoples and of racial unity and 
self-determination are sacrificed to the old diplomacy of barter 
and intrigue and secret agreement. These things have gone on 
in the Vv'orld before; but for the first time America will become a 
party to them. We are to participate in the sacrifice of the world's 
most populous republic, a friendly nation, to that system, if the 
proposals of our representatives at Paris, assuming we have any, 
be confirmed. 

Moreover, by that decision, the friendship of America and of 
the strong, militant, efficient, shrewdly governed nation which 
fronts us in the Pacific basin is endangered. America has come out 
of the war with the prejudice against Japan, as a nation, eliminat- 
ed. We have fought side by side with Japan in a war to eliminate 
from the world the sort of thing now proposed in China. Vv^e have 
seen Japan perform bravely and effectively her part in that great 
struggle. The day of suspicion and antagonism was about to be 
succeeded by one of confidence and good will. Now it is proposed 
to set aflame, in this country, the suspicion that in conquering a 
great European militaristic power, bent on continental control and 
ultimately world conquest, we have set up another in Asia, and as 
the first whetting of the appetite of the new Moloch, we have fed 
to it a great Chinese province, with forty million people thus trans- 
ferred to an alien sovereignty, and have opened the door to Japa- 
nese dominance of an area equal in size, resources and potential 
wealth to the United States, with a population four times our own, 

81 



AMERICANISM 

thus putting: within the grasp of one powei- as big a possibility of 
world conquest as that which lured Germany to her doom. 

For her single-hearted, one-minded devotion to Japanese inter- 
ests at the peace table, Japan is not to be condemned. There are 
many Americans who regret that this almost fanatical national 
devotion is met only by a willingness to sacrifice American inter- 
ests, traditions and ideals on our own part. Before Japan, now al- 
most within her grasp, lies the prize of dominance over China 
which has possessed her statesmanship for j'-ears. It is a trem.en- 
dous temptation; a temptation which will not be lessened by the 
cession of the province of Shantung unreservedly to her. The 
statement that the province will be turned back to China is doubt- 
less made in good faith. It was made in good faith at the time of 
the capture of Kiaochow four years ago. The Cliinese delegates 
to the peace conference do not expect it will be easier to fix a date 
for the surrender, w^hich is entirely left to the option of Japan, 
ten years from now than it is noM'. The principle involved is to be 
settled now. It is proposed that the province be turned over to 
Japan at this time, and that the title be confirmed and recorded by 
the league of nations, so that if China wishes to defend her sov- 
ereignty we may be bound to send troops to suppress her aspira- 
tions to free nationality. It is no defense of the act of selling a 
child into slavery to say, in reply to critics, that the purchaser 
agi-ees to emancipate the slave in due time. It is only an aggrava- 
tion of the offense. 

We may not be able to save China from partition, despite our 
success up to this time in doing so against the intrigue of most of 
the other powers of the world. Secret treaties incident to the war, 
and possibly necessary to its successful prosecution, seemingly 
stand in the way. But what we can do, as a nation, is to avoid 
becoming parties to the thing. We can avoid joining in the trans- 
action, and from guaranteeing, through Article X of the proposed 
league of nations covenant, title to the spoil thus taken from a 
republic created in emulation of the American example, which 
had its inspiration in admiration of the traditional pohcy of un- 
selfish friendship for all nations and championship of the rights of 
weak and helpless peoples as exemplified in our conduct in the 
Orient in earlier days. But we may even save China from Japan, 
and Japan from herself, by organized, public protest. 

Write your senators your views on this matter, and on Article 
X of the constitution of the league of nations by which it is pro- 
posed to bind the bargain. Powerful, organized influences are urg- 
ing those desiring the adoption of what is brought over from Paris, 
without amendment in behalf of the United States, to flood the 
capitol with letters and telegrams. Get YOUR views before your 
representatives charged with joint responsibility in this moment- 
ous matter; it is j^our only opportunity to be heard. This is the 

82 



AMERICANISM 

most important crisis in national history since 1861. Do YOUR 
duty, — a duty vastly easier of performance than that which has 
fallen to the millions who have offered their all on the altar of 
patriotism that this republic might live for the fulfillment of its 
high mission among men. 
—May 10, 1919. 



Is it any wonder that the old soldier loves the flag under whose 
folds he fought and for which his comrades shed so much blood? 
He loves it for what it is and for what it represents. It embodies 
the purposes and history of the government itself. It records the 
achievements of its defenders upon land and sea. It heralds the 
heroism and sacrifices of our Revolutionary fathers who planted 
free government on this continent and dedicated it to liberty for- 
ever. It attests the struggles of our army and the valor of our 
citizens in all the wars of the republic. It has been sacrificed by 
the blood of our best and our bravest. It records the achievements 
of Washington and the martyrdom of Lincoln. It has been bathed 
in the tears of a sorrowing people. It has been glorified in the 
hearts of a freedom-loving people, not only at home but in every 
part of the world. Our flag expresses more than any other flag; 
it means more than any other national emblem. It expresses the 
will of a free people, and proclaims that they are supreme and that 
they acknowledge no earthly sovereign but themselves. It never 
was assaulted that thousands did not rise up to smite the assail- 
ant. Glorious old banner! — V/illiam McKinley. 

Every time we do honor to the soldiers of the republic, we 
reaffirm our devotion to the country, to the glorious flag, to the 
immorial principles of libei'ty, equality and justice, which have 
made the United States unrivaled among the nations of the world. 
The union of these states must be peiTDetual. That is what our 
brave boys died for. 

The unity of the republic is secure so long as we continue to 
honor the memory of the men who died by the tens of thousands 
to preserve it. The dissolution of the union is impossible so long 
as we continue to inculcate lessons of fraternity, unity and patri- 
otism. 

But we must not forget, my fellow-countrymen, that the union 
which these brave men preserved, and the liberties which they 
secured, places upon us, the living, the gravest responsibility. We 
are the freest governm.ent on the face of the earth. Our stiength 
rests in our patriotism. Anarchy flees before patriotism.. Peace 
and order and security and liberty are safe so long as love of coun- 
try burns in the hearts of the people. 

It should not be forgotten, however, that liberty does not mean 
lawlessness. Liberty to make our own laws does not give us license 

83 



AMERICANISM 

to break them. Liberty to make our own lav.'s commands a duty 
to obsei-ve them ourselves and enforce obedience among all others 
within their jurisdiction. Libeily, my fellow-citizens, is responsi- 
bility, and responsibility is duty, and that duty is to preserve the 
exceptional libeii:y we enioy within the law and for the law and 
by the law. — William McKinley. 

On prim.al rocks she wrote her name, 

Her towers vvere reared on holy g-raves; 

The golden seed that bore her came 

Swif t-v.inged with prayer o'er ocean waves. 

The Forest bowed his solemiU crest. 

And open flung his sylvan doors; 
Meek Rivers led the appointed Guest 

To clasp the wide-embracing shores ; 

Till, fold by fold, the broidered Land 
To swell her virgin vestments grew, 

While sages, strong in heart and hand. 
Her virtue's fiery girdle drew. 

Exile of the wrath of Kings! 

Pilgrim Ark of Liberty! 
The refuge of divinest things, 

Their record must abide in thee. 

First in the glories of thy front 

Let the crovv-n jewel, Truth, be found; 

Thy right hand fling, with generous vvont. 
Love's happy chain to furthest bound. 

Let Justice, with the faultless scales. 
Hold fast the w^orship of thy sons ; 

Thy Commerce spread her shining sails 
Where no dark tide of rapine runs. 

So link thy ways to those of God, 

So follow Arm the heavenly laws. 
That stars may greet thee, warrior browed, 

And storm-sped angels hail thy cause. 

O Land, the measure of our prayers, 
Hope of the world, in grief and v/rong ! 

Be thine the blessing of the years, 
The gift of faith, the crown of song! 

— Julia Ward Howe. 

84 



THE TREATY'S BETRAYAL OF A 
SISTER REPUBLIC 

The camouflage with which the true significance of the Shantung 
decision is being concealed from the American people is only an- 
other proof that you can put almost anything over in world 
politics if your press agents are equal to the emergency. That 
decision, amounting to the surrender of the territory and sover- 
eignty, the sacrifice of the independence of the world's most popu- 
lous republic, — a republic associated with the United States in 
the war, — to the imperial ambitions of the greatest military and 
commercial power of the Orient, — is a travesty upon the high pre- 
tensions of the Ameiican delegation at the peace conference to 
an idealism at war with all the ancient standards of diplomacy. 

The partition of Poland by the enemies of that nation was an 
act of humanity as compared with the partition of helpless China 
by her "friends" at Paris. The effort to soften the ugly outlines 
of this procedure cannot hide the fact that in consenting to this 
arrangement America will betray a nation which, with pathetic 
confidence in American idealism and unselfishness based upon our 
traditional policies, has looked to the great republic whose institu- 
tions the Chinese people have sought to emulate, but looked in 
vain. And why? Because our representatives at Paris, without 
a mandate for their action from the American people, have chosen 
to involve this country in the entanglements of European politics. 

Doubtless the decision against China was assented to by the 
American delegation reluctantly. But we have cast in our lot with 
other powers; we have surrendered our right to independent ac- 
tion; the surrender of China to Japan is the result of sundry bar- 
gainings to which we have been made party. It foreshadows what 
we may expect as the result of yielding up our traditional policy 
of independent action in the world's affairs, by being "yoked 
with unbelievers" in a partnership for world domination. We are 
told, for instance, that Japan looks to the proposed league of na- 
tions by a subsequent decision, to open our doors to unrestricted 
Japanese immigration. 

At the end of the peace conference, as the first important deci- 
sion of the proposed league of nations, China is delivered bound 
hand and foot into the suzerainty of Japan against the wishes and 
over the protest of the Chinese people. In effect we have con- 
firmed, in addition, the secret treaties and arrangements whereby 

85 



AMERICANISM 

Japan, during the war, took a blanket mort?;age on the natural re- 
sources and trade opportunities of China in exchange for some 
seventy million dollars in loans. This is the natural consequence 
of the Lansing-Ishii secret agreement, whereby the United States, 
without the knowledge or consent of the American people, gave 
sanction to the doctrine of "special interests" of Japan in China. 
That agreement closed the "open door" of Hay and Knox and 
recognized, in principle, the right of Japan to control the destinies 
of China. 

We have no right to complain of the ambition of Japan to dom- 
inate China. It is a natural ambition; as natural as that of the 
central powers to dominate Europe ; if it can be peacefully achieved 
through American consent or connivance, it represents a triumph 
of Japanese diplomacy almost without parallel in history. Japan 
is a nation of limited area and pressing population ; a nation of 
hiving tendencies and ambition for expansion ; autocratic and mili- 
taristic. The Japanese combination of industry, thrift, ingenuity 
and low living standards for Vv-age earners, makes Japan a formid- 
able contestant for world trade supremacy. Backed by the teem- 
ing population and vast untouched natural resources of China, 
Japan can dominate any market through low production costs. 
With control of China, Japan may easily become the ricliest and 
most powerful nation in the world. 

Thus ends pathetically the struggle of the Chinese republic for 
independent existence, as the first decision of the proposed league 
of nations. It will be of interest to recount the story. 

The Boxer rebellion, believed to have been fostered by the Dow- 
ager Empress, resulted in the slaughter of many Europeans and 
Americans. We had at the time many veteran soldiers in the Phil- 
ippines. A considerable detachment was sent to China to join the 
allied expedition for the relief of the foreigners penned up in the 
legations at Pekin. The Amiorican forces had read to them by the 
commanding general before beginning the march to Pekin, the 
American code of Vv^arf are, prepared m.ore than a half century ago 
by Francis Lieber, prohibiting injury or robbery of non-combat- 
ants. The American forces did not indulge in the looting which 
characterized the marches and occupations of the forces of some 
of the associated powers. . 

When Pekin had fallen, indemnities were imposed upon Chma 
to reimburse the various nationals for life and property destroyed. 
Alone among all the pov/ers, the United States, after paying all 
claims, returned the unexpended balance to China. In recognition 
of this act China created from this repayment, a fund for the edu- 
cation of Chinese students in American colleges and universities. 
Germany compelled the Chinese to erect a statue to the murdered 
imperial minister at the spot in Pekin where he fell, and required 
the cession of an entire province to Germany. It is the title thus 

86 



AMERICANISM 

obtained that the preliminary league of nations has just confirmed 
in Japan. 

When Japan took Shantung from the Germ.ans early in the war, 
it was with the public declaration, especially addressed to the 
United States, that it was for the pui-pose of returning the prov- 
ince to China. The province has now been turned over to Japan 
without reservation as to its future disposition, and the public is 
fed the statement that Japan intends ultimately to return the 
territory to China. Of course, if there were such an intention, no 
reason exists for not carrying it out at once, and no date being 
given for the return, it is not surprising that the Chinese delegates 
to the peace conference regard the announcement of such an in- 
tention as mere camouflage. Possession is nine points of the law, 
and assuming that the present purpose is to return the territory 
some time, it is not binding upon future Japanese governments, 
and the covenant of the league of nations confirms the right of 
Japan to hold the territoiy forever. 

in this connection it is worthy of note that when President Yuan 
Shi Kai attempted to make himself emperor of China, he had the 
assistance of an opinion rendered by Professor Goodknow, of Johns 
Hopkins University, an American adviser who presumably was at 
the court of Pekin with the consent of the American government, 
that a monarchy was a form of governm.ent better suited to the 
Chinese than a republic. The people of China confuted this pro- 
fessorial sophistry by driving the would-be emperor from power. 
This was the first public proof given to the world of the foothold 
which European conceptions of government have gained in Amer- 
ica, especially in American universities in recent years. The loans 
recently accepted by the present Chinese government in exchange 
for exclusive concessions amounting to a mortgage on China, had 
been made over the protest of the republican elements in China, 
temporarily out of power through the exercise of military force 
at Pekin. 

There is nothing to be gained, and much to be lost by stirring 
up ill will between Japan and the United States. With such good 
grace as we can, v/e may as well face the facts, which are that 
Japanese diplomacy has outplayed us at the peace table, gaining 
for Japan the obliteration of the Hay policy and making China a 
Japanese dependency. At the same time the administration, 
through President Wilson and Secretaiy Baker, is urging that we 
abandon the Philippines and with them all responsibility in the 
Orient. Surely republican China is disillusioned. But republican 
China should understand that the cause of republicanism and of 
Chinese political independence and territorial integrity would not 
have been abandoned by the party of McKinley and Hay. It is to 
be hoped that the advocates of the league of nations are satisfied 
with this first sample of its operations in behalf of international 
justice and in the abandonment of American traditions. 

87 



AMERICANISM 

But will the United States Senate care to accept joint responsi- 
bility for such a betrayal? Perhaps we cannot help this betrayal, 
but we can at least refuse to accept joint responsibility for it. 
—May 10, 1919. 

fcz^oEZDl 



It appears to me probable that Monroe had but little conception 
of the lasting effect which his words would produce. He spoke 
what he believed and what he knew that others believed ; he spoke 
under provocation, and aware that his views might be controvert- 
ed; he spoke with authority after consultation with his cabinet, 
and his words were timely ; but I do not suppose that he regarded 
this announcement as his own. Indeed, if it had been his own 
decree or ukase it would have been resented at home quite as 
vigorously as it would have been opposed abroad. It was because 
he pronounced not only the opinion then prevalent, but a tradition 
of other days which had been gradually expanded, and to which 
the country was wonted, that his words carried with them the 
sanction of public law. A careful examination of the writings of 
the earlier statesmen of the republic will illustrate the growth of 
the Monroe Doctrine as an idea dimly entertained at first, but 
steadily developed by the course of public events and the reflection 
of those in public life. I have not made a thorough search, but 
some indications of the mode in which the doctrine was evolved 
have come under my eye which may hereafter be added to by a 
more persistent investigator. 

The idea of independence from foreign sovereignty was at the 
beginning of our national life. The term "continental," applied to 
the army, the Congress, the currency, had made familiar the 
nation of continental independence. This kept in mind the nation 
of a continental domain. Moreover, in the writings, both public 
and private, of the fathers of the republic, we see how clearly they 
recognize the value of separation from European politics, and of 
repelling, as far as possible, European interference with American 
interests. — Daniel C. Oilman, 1883. 

From all the combinations of European politics relative to the 
distribution of power or the administration of government the 
United States have studiously kept them.selves aloof. They have 
not sought, by the propagation of their principles, to disturb the 
peace, or to intermeddle with the policy of any part of Europe. In 
the Independence of Nations, they have respected the organiza- 
tion of their governments, hov/ever different from their own, and 
they have thought it no sacrifice of their principles to cultivate 
with sincerity and assiduity peace and friendship even with the 
most absolute monarchies and their sovereigns.— John Qumcy 
Adams, 1823. 



A LEAGUE TO PERPETUATE INTERNATIONAL 

INJUSTICE? 

A more appropriate name for the proposed league of nations, 
in the light of the Shantung decision, would be a League of Force 
for the Perpetration and Perpetuation of International Injustice. 
The name given to the proposed oiganization by the Chinese 
themselves, viz., "The Leagaie of Thieves," is perhaps a bit too 
drastic. It is certain that the American people never gave their 
consent to the organization of such a league as that. It is certain 
that the American people do not approve the proposed abandon- 
ment of the American policy of fair play for China in order to 
enter into a partnership for putting the world's most populous 
republic in a strait-jacket and forming a league to guarantee that 
the bonds shall not slip. 

It is scarcely necessary to point out the gross injustice of deliver- 
ing to Japan, on the basis of a "title" transferred from Germany, 
and obtained by German}'' in the same way that she got title to 
Belgium, the province of Shantung, comprising 10,000 square 
miles of territory and more people than inhabit all that part of 
the United States lying west of the Great Lakes ; all Chinese, and 
yet placed beneath the sovereignty and subjected to the exploita- 
tion of a power that has similarly absorbed Korea and has a defi- 
nite, determined policy of territorial absorption. 

The injustice to China did not stop there. Germany is not the 
only European country that has by force taken from China pieces 
of her territory on one pretext and another. These land-grabs of 
the European powers are called "concessions." They are the same 
kind of concession that an unarmed pedestrian hands over to a 
footpad at the point of a gun. If there were any sincerity what- 
ever in the pretense of the preamble of the proposed league of na- 
tions about a mutual determination of the powers to usher in a 
reign of international justice, this "svvag" would have been handed 
back. What greater moral right has Great Britain to Hong Kong 
than China to Liverpool? V/hat higher ethics is involved in the 
"internationalization" of Shanghai, or the exercise of sovereignty 
over Pekin soil by the several European powers than in the Gei- 
man claim to Brussels? Will anyone believe that Europe has 
turned over a new leaf while it holds to these concessions, desired 
and held only for the purpose of pressing commercial advantage, 
and with no purpose whatever to serve or assist the Chinese 
people ? 

89 



AMERICANIS]M 

But not only are these concessions of China's late European 
associates in the war not turned back to the owner, but the "con- 
cessions" grabbed by Germany, instead of being handed back to 
China, are by treaty "internationalized," in other v/ords taken 
over by the nations benevolently associated to prevent future Vv-ar 
and injustice throughout the world! 

It is not fair to the Paris conferees, of whom President Vv^ilson 
is, by his press agents, pronounced the master spirit, to say that 
they did nothing for China. One clause in the peace treaty re- 
quires that Germany shall return to China the astronomical instru- 
ments taken to Berlin during the Boxer uprising. These instru- 
ments were presented to China by Louis XVI. Their return to 
Pekin as the sole measure of fair play to China is appropriate, for 
the diplomacy exemplified in the Shantung decision seems to be of 
the Louis XVI period. 
—May 17, 1919. 

|c=30i=3| 

We think that nothing is povrerful enough to stand before auto- 
cratic, monarchical or despotic power. There is something strong 
enough, quite strong enough, — and, if properly exerted, will prove 
itself so, — and that is the power of intelligent public opinion in 
all the nations of the earth. There is not a monarch on earth 
whose throne is not liable to be shaken by the progress of opinion, 
and the sentim-ent of the just and intelligent part of the people. 
It becomes us, in the station which we hold, to let that public opin- 
ion, so far as we form it, have a free course. Let it go out ; let it 
be pronounced in thunder tones ; let it open the ears of the deaf ; 
let it open the eyes of the blind; and let it everyv/here be pro- 
claimed what we 'of this great republic think of tlie general prin- 
ciples of human liberty. — Daniel Webster. 

Individuals may wear for a time the glory of cur institutions, 
but they carry it not to the grave with them. Like rain-dropa 
from Heaven,' they may pass through the circle of the shining 
bow and add to its luster, but when they have sunk to the earth 
again the proud arch still spans the sky and shines gloriously on. 
— James A. Garfield. 

Peace, liberty and personal security are blessings as common 
and universal as sunshine and showers and fruitful seasons; and 
all sprang from a single source — the principle declared in the 
Pilgrim covenant of 1620 — that all ovved due submission and obe- 
dience to the lawfully expressed v/ill of the majority. This is not 
one of the doctrines of our political system, it is the system itself. 
It is in our political firmament, in which all other truths are set, 
as stars in heaven. It is the encasing air, the breath of the na- 
tion's life. — James A. Garfield. 

90 



"PARTISANSHIP" AND TEE 
LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

The Omaha World-Herald, a Democratic party paper published 
by Senator Hitchcock, of Nebraska, — from which one may draw 
conclusions as to the sincerity of the declaration at the head of the 
editorial column that it is "an independent newspaper," — says 
there is no difference between the rank and file of both parties in 
their desire to have enduring peace, and to have in the world a 
"sacred document" for the prevention of wars. 

There is no difference between the rank and file of both parties 
in their desire to have enduring peace, — that is true. If there ever 
was in this countiy a man who wanted war, the experiences of the 
past two years would have cured him. Not only have we experi- 
enced the horrors of the battlefield as portrayed by the World- 
Herald in the campaign of 1916, with the assurance that the elec- 
tion of Wilson meant tiiat we would not be called upon the undergo 
them, — but we have passed through an era of extravagance, 
waste, mismanagement, control of public opinion by propaganda 
and coercion, in itself sufficient to prove that when Sherm.an said 
war was hell, he didn't fully rise to the occasion. 

There is a very serious difference of opinion about the "sanctity" 
of the covenant cooked up by Mr. Wilson and the European diplo- 
mats, however, even Vv'hen it is presented with the Pecksniffian 
pretense that it is going to keep us out of war by tlie same politi- 
cians and editors who handed us the same bunk in 1916, v/ith an 
aftermath it is unnecessary to recall. The dishonesty of many of 
the advocates of this covenant is demonstrated by their crooked 
claim that opposition to it is based upon a desire that this country 
shall become involved in v/ar, and by the assertion that the foes 
of the scheme are inspired by "partisan" motives, when eveiybody 
understands that such organs as the World-Herald and such poli- 
ticians as Senator Hitchcock would be hovding their heads off 
against the v\'hole arrangement if it had been proposed by the 
McKinley or Roosevelt administrations. 

The British-Wilson covenant is opposed by the sturdy Ameri- 
canism of this country because it not only sacrifices the sovereign- 
ty and independence and prosperity of the American people, but 
)3ecause it makes every war of the futui'e an American war, and 
binds us to send our sons to fight it. Instead of partisanship being- 
responsible for the opposition to it, the scheme as proposed Vv'oukl 

91 



AMERICANISM 

not have formidable support except for partisanship, coupled with 
the Vv'holesale prostitution of the publicity agencies of the country 
to propaganda for this alien scheme of internationalization. It is 
a well known fact that privately more than half of the Democratic 
members of the Senate are in their hearts against the scheme and 
it is only the lash of party discipline which prevents revolt against 
it. It is worthy of note that as soon as Senator James Hamilton 
Lewis got out of the Senate and from under the official lash, he 
experienced as sudden a change of heart as came to Saul of Tarsus. 
Among Republicans most of the disposition not to war upon it 
results from that meanest kind of partisanship which fears tlie 
immediate effect upon the party or personal fortunes of taking a 
bold and unequivocal stand for the right, even in a matter in- 
volving the veiy fate of the republic. 

The World-Herald says that The National Republican is dis- 
torting the "ideals" for which America, alias Mr. Wilson, is "striv- 
ing at the peace table." These "ideals" have emerged from the 
realm of rhetoric to that of practical application. In com.pliance 
with secret treaties the province of Shantung, with 10,000 square 
miles of territory and a population of 40,000,000, — the sacred 
province of China inhabited only by Chinese, — is torn from the 
heart of the world's most populous republic and handed over to 
Japan, the great mJlitary autocracy of the Orient, whose emperor's 
person is "sacred," just like the "covenant" under which we guar- 
antee the territorial integrity of every kingdom, empire and piin- 
cipality on earth. You can't "distort" such "ideals" as that. Just 
as well talk about blackening a coal mine or darkening a railvvay 
tunnel. Such transactions as this represent reaction to feudalism, 
not progress toward that glad day when there shall be peace on 
earth, good will to men, when cannons shall become plow-shares 
and swords pruning hooks and Colonel Bryan's army of farmers in 
Fords, armed with corn knives, shall be sufficient to keep safe the 
shores of the i-epublic. 
—May 24, 1919. 



dnomD 



There is not an idea or sentiment in Washington's Farewell Ad- 
dress which may not be found, more or less extended, in different 
parts of Washington's writings; nor, after such a perusal, can 
any one doubt his ability to compose such a paper. It derives its 
value, and is destined to immortality, and chiefly from the circum- 
stances of its containing v/ise, pure and noble sentiments, sanc- 
tioned by the name of Washington at the moment when he was 
retiring from a long public career, in which he had been devoted 
to the service of his country with a disinterestedness, self-sacri- 
fice, perseverance and success, commanding tlie admiration and 
applause of mankind. — Jared Sparks, 1837. 

92 



SHALL WE NO\y BE GUIDED MORE BY OUR 
HOPES THAN BY OUR FEARS? 

The Saturday Evening Post, one of the active propagandists of 
the national administration and particularly of the administration 
plan for a world constitution, says that the objections urged to 
the "covenant" are mere "senatorial bogies." Others may dis- 
cover some uncertainty in the provisions of the document, but the 
Saturday Evening Post finds it all as clear as the noonday sun. It 
required nearly a century of debate and judicial interpretation, 
legislative contention and finally civil vs^ar, to decide the meaning 
of the American Constitution, but concerning the provisions of 
the divinely inspired Versailles constitution, which has been writ- 
ten and re-written, patched and half-soled a number of times, it 
is unnecessary to go beyond the sanctum of the Saturday Evening 
Post to discover that they mean nothing the unfriendly inteipret- 
ers fear they do and everything the partisans of the scheme say 
they mean. The Post continues: 

"Any possible federation of nations must be essentially like a partner- 
ship among individuals. If each prospective partner is going to assume, 
to begin with, tliat tlie otlier prospective partners are seeking a partner- 
siiip in order to take every possible advantage of him and injure him at 
every opportunity the partnership will never be foi-med, for legal inge- 
nuity cannot frame a compact under which a set of rogues, working 
together, will not find a chance to gouge each other. But if each pros- 
pective partner taket^ the connr>on-sense view that, as the partnership 
is for the mutual beneiit of all concerned, every partner will wish to 
keep on good terms with the other partners and will act toward them 
with a reasonable degree of honesty and good faith, then a legal docu- 
ment, satisfactory to all of them, can be' drawn." 

The Saturday Evening Post would not advise any one of its 
readers, presumably, to sign any legal contract, affecting his rights 
or interests, vvdthout making the closest possible investigation of 
not only the surface meaning, but the implications, of every clause 
in the contract. The company v;hich published the Post would 
not enter into any legal contract without submitting it to tlie 
scrutiny of a high-priced lawyer, v/hose business it would be to 
seek out the possibilities of danger involved in every phrase. This 
would be true, particularly, if the contract had been prepared not 
by his client, but by the parties of the other part, possibly by their 
lawyers. It is admitted that the constitution for a league of na- 
tions prepared by the American delegation was rejected, and the 



AMERICANISM 

pending covenant, written ):)y Lord Cecil on the basis of General 
Smuts' outline, substituted. What the American proposal was we 
have never been permitted to know in this day of open covenants 
openly arrived at, so there is no vv^ay of telling- how far the British 
plan varies from the American scheme. But the Post advises its 
readers to get a copy of the league of nations covenant, read it, 
and then reach their own conclusions as to its meaning; the Post, 
thoughtfully, however, instructs them v/hat to think. 

>Y. :;; * * * 

We repeat that tlie sensible man who plans to abandon a pros- 
perous independent business and merge it into a partnership would 
consider it not only his right, but his duty, to give even greater 
weight to the possible disadvantages than to the possible benefits 
of the arrangement. Of the state of his own business and the 
sincerity of his own intentions he could be certain. The man who, 
in considering the merging of his own business with another busi- 
ness, consults his hopes and his imagination more than his fears 
and suspicions will have luck to thank if he does not find himself 
worsted in the bargain. It is all very well for special pleaders for 
the covenant like the Post to say that in going into a "partner- 
ship" we do not surrender our own right to independent action; 
but any man of common sense knows that the thought of partner- 
ship is inconsistent with that of independence. Tliose who paint 
in bright colors the alleged advantages, or the alleged service to 
humanity in general, of the proposed covenant, bear the sanie 
relationship to the American people that the promoter of an oil, 
mining or land development does to the prospect who is asked to 
buy stock. It is the business of the promoter to leap over all the 
possible limitations of the property and hold before his possible 
customer the big profits that are in sight. And if the prospect 
were to propose to submit the prospectus to an attoniey or an 
expert, doubtless the promoter would advise him as the Post does, 
just to look at the pretty pictures on the stock certificate and use 
his own horse sense without listening to the "bogies" raised by 
flaw picking lawyers. The Post says, and the argument is quite 
commonly used by partisans of the covenant as proposed : "Pick- 
ing flaws, and magnifying them, is to be expected. =•= * * Keep the 
official texts and read them over for yourself, with plain horse 
sense, not of course forgetting that the sincerity of the signatory 
powers is the essence of the contract." 

The competent lawyer advising a client who is proposing to 
enter a partnership will tell him that if the essence of a contract 
is dependent upon the sincerity of the parties signing it, then no 
written contract would be necessary. The very existence of a 
written instrument demonstrates that sensible men prefer to have 
mutual obligations clearly defined, to leave nothing to chance and 
to depend upon no verbal representations outside the text of the 
agreement. The man who, in making a contract with you, objects 

94 



AMERICANISM 

to having a complete meeting- of minds in the construction of an 
agi-eement, for instance, when you mean Monroe Doctrine, saying 
"Monroe Doctrine" instead of "such regional understanding's as 
the Monroe Doctrine in the interests of peace," will bear watching. 
There is a "reservation of some sort in his mind which prompts 
him to beat around the bush. The history of European diplomacy 
proves the existence of a disposition in some qu^^rters to consider 
language a means of concealing thought. Double meaning is 
moi-e perilous in a contract than in an ordinary joke. 

What of the meeting of minds between America and the other 
signatory powers which after all is the essence of the contract? 
Do we have, as a matter of fact, the same ideals, pui-poses and 
interests which make a partnership agreement an assurance of 
amicable relations? What light is throvrn upon this by the pro- 
ceedings of the peace conference ? We have asked nothing there ; 
we ask no recompense for the billions of dollars expended, the 
seventy-five thousand pi-ice^ess lives lost, the hundreds of thou- 
sands of minor casualties, the heavy burden of debt we have 
shouldered, the sacrifices, material and moral, the people of this 
country have m^ade during the war. What about our prospective 
partners? What about Great Britain? Have her representatives 
revealed at the peace table the same self-sacrificing altruism? 
Have the national interests of that great world empire been in 
any wise surrendered for the sake of the rest of the Vv^orld? W^hat 
about France? Has France been in the peace conference to give 
or to take? What about Italy? Fiume. The downfall of the 
Orlando ministry because it went too far in compromising with 
the one demand made by President Wilson for surrender of the 
spoils of war by any other nation. What about Japan? Shantung 
is the answer. What about even the new governments which 
have sprung up as the result of a war partly waged for their 
liberation? Have they been in Paris seeking an opportunity for 
sacrifice, or a chance for national advantage ? All this is not said 
by way of censure of these nations. It is evident, from the uni- 
versality of their spirit, that there is something quite human 
about it. It is not for us to condemn, but it is certainly for us to 
recognize, this stubborn clinging to the ancient rivalries, jeal- 
ousies and clashing ambitions of European and Asiatic nations. 
It is with these we ai-e asked to go into partnership. It requires 
the optimism of a Mulberry Sellers to find the prospect of peace 
for America in the process of involving ourselves in a covenant 
the essence of which is the sincerity of these nations in desiring 
to sacrifice national advantage upon the altar of international 
good will! 

Taking it for granted, however, that our proposed partners are 
as sincere as the Saturday Evening Post thinks they are in their 
desire to end the system of v/hich they have for centuries been a 
part, and of which we have never been a part; that the hearts of 

95 



ALIERICANISM 

these nations are for the moment filled with the passion for world 
service, free from the taint of national selfishness, the desire for 
territoi'ial aggression, naval supremacy or trade advantage, what 
about these partners tomorrow or d^y after tomorrow? Govern- 
ments come, and governments go; especially in Europe in these 
days, they go. The Russia of yesterday and the Russia of today 
may not be wider apart than the England or France of today and 
the England or France of tomorrow. When the average man takes 
a partner he would like to know what he is going to look and act 
like a year hence. A few days ago we were dealing with one Italy, 
now, before the peace conference is over, by political revolution 
there is another and different Italy. By an act of the Italian 
parliament the oflficial status of Premier Orlando is extinguished. 
No obligation of the Russia of the Czar or even of Kerensky is 
recognized by the Russia of Trotzky and Lenine. This is an ex- 
treme example, but it illustrates the fact that no government of 
today can in matters of vital national concern and particularly in 
matters of idealism, bind the government of a few ye^^rs hence. 
This matter is worthy of consideration in arriving at the weight 
that is to be attached to the "sincerity" of the contracting parties 
as the "essence" of a contract of permanent partnership. 

* * >;: * * 

That, by the partnership proposed, these European and Asiatic 
powers might profit, is a fair argument. That v>^e might be able 
to act as a peace-maker to some extent as member of such a 
combination, is true. But in entering a partnership, or rather a 
corporation in which we are a minority stockholder, it v»^ould prob- 
ably be well, instead of depending entirely on our own hopefulness, 
our own child-like faith in the good intentions of others, to listen 
as carefully to the pickers of flaws as the painters of rainbows; 
to listen to the voice of experience as well as to voices in the air. 
Perhaps some significance should be attached to the fact that the 
chief proponent of the present plan for keeping us out of war 
were the more or less inspired leaders who rhetorically reduced 
the high cost of living and introduced the simplicity and economy 
befitting a democratic government in 1912 and kept us out of war 
in 1916. Even stock in a solvent corporation is not helped through 
l^eing offered by agents who in the past have achieved a reputa- 
tion for floating fake securities. We are now confronted with an 
alluring prospectus which invites us to become minority stock 
holders in a world corporation in which we furnish the assets and 
the other partners the experience; and by these very political 
Micawbers and Wallingf ords ! 

Let it be admitted that the Republicans in the Senate are acting 
in the capacity of attorneys for only one of the parties to the 
proposed covenant. As such, it is their business to be partisans 
for the party of the first part. It is their business to "pick flaws" 
and to create "bogies," if you will. Once adopted, the covenant 

96 



AMERICANISM 

will be subject to the intei-pretation of those whose interests are 
adverse to ours, as well as of those who liave our national inter- 
ests at heart. The theoiy that we can get out of the league if 
we do not find it to our liking- seems fair enough ; but it is always 
easier to get into a partnership than to get honorable and profit- 
able release from a partnership that turns out to be disadvan- 
tageous. The theory that we can amend the covenant to our 
advantage hereafter carries with it the implication that in a com- 
bination in which we can be out-voted it may be amended to our 
disadvantage. 

* * :;: :;: * 

Let the people deal with this proposed covenant just as they 
v/ould with any contract of partnership or coiporate association 
they are invited to sign. Let them not fail to give as careful 
scrutiny and as interested consideration to the perils and penalties 
as to the suppositious advantages of the arrangement. Let them 
see to it that any contract executed says what its proponents saj^ 
it means, leaving nothing to guess-work. No sensible man would 
fail to follow such a course in his own private business. Why 
would he not act with as much caution in a matter affecting the 
destiny of the nation, the welfare of himself, his children and his 
children's chDdi-en? Would any man competent to protect his 
own rights and interests in private life, yield to the demand to 
"sign here" made in behalf of a contract of wide terms and im- 
plications, and to the plea that any effort on his part to change 
these terms and implications for his own protection would be 
inteipreted as "delaying the game" and as a dishonorable repu- 
diation of the acts of a self -constituted agent never authorized by 
him to enter into any such agreement? And whatever contract 
we sign, let us expect to execute to the letter, however seriously 
it may affect our national rights and interests. The time to pro- 
tect these rights and interests is now, before the contract is made. 
—June 28, 1919. 



CZIOEZD 



Washington reminds us of the quality of great citizenship. His 
career is at once an inspiration and I'ebuke. Wliatever is lofty, 
fair and patriotic in public conduct instinctively v/e call by his 
name; whatever is base, selfish and unv/orthy is shamed by the 
lustre of his life. Like the flaming svvord turning every way that 
guarded the gate of Paradise, Washington's example is the beacon 
shining at the opening of our annals and lighting the path of our 
national life. Washington's conduct of the war was not moi-e 
valuable to the countrj^ than his organization of the government, 
and it was not his special talent but his character that made both 
of those services possible. In public affairs the glamor of arms 
is always dazzling. But while military glory stirs the popular 
heart it is the tiaditions of national grandeur, the force of noble 

97 



AMERICANISM 

character which nourisli the sentiment that makes men patriots 
and heroes. It is not only Washington the soldier and the states- 
man, but Washington the citizen, whom we chiefly remember. 
Americans are accused of making an excellent and patriotic Vir- 
ginia gentleman a mythological hero and demigod. But what 
mythological hero or demigod is a figure so fair? We say nothing 
of him today that was not said by those who saw and knew him, 
and in phrases more glowing than ours, and the concentrated 
light of a hundred years discloses nothing to mar the nobility of 
the incomparable man. — George William Curtis. 

We ought not to undertake the task of policing Europe, Asia 
and northern Africa ; neither ought we to permit any interference 
with the Monroe Doctrine or any attempt by Europe or Asia to 
police America. Mexico is our Balkan peninsula. Some day we 
will have to deal with it. All the coasts and islands which in any 
way approach the Panama Canal must be dealt with by this nation 
in accordance with the Monroe Doctrine. * * * Let each nation 
reserve to itself and for its own decision, and let it clearly set 
forth, questions which are nonjusticable. Finally, make it perfect- 
ly clear that we do not intend to take a position of an international 
''Meddlesome Mattie." The American people do not wish to under- 
take the responsibility of sending our gallant young men to die 
in obscure fights in the Balkans or in central Europe or in a war 
we do not approve of ; moreover, the American people do not intend 
to give up the Monroe Doctrine. — Theodore Roosevelt. 

It is the long-settled conviction of this government that any 
extension to our shores of the political system by which the great 
powers have controlled and determined events in Europe would be 
attended with danger to the peace and welfare of this nation. * * * 
It is nothing more than the pronounced adherence of the United 
States to principles long since enunciated by the highest authority 
of the government, and nov/, in the judgment of the President, 
firmly inwoven as an integral and important part of our national 
policy. — James G. Blaine. 

Having lavished all her honors, his (Washington's) country had 
nothing more to bestow upon him except her blessing. But he had 
more to bestow upon his country. His views and his advice, the 
condensed wisdom of all his reflection, observation and experience, 
he delivers to his compatriots in a manual worthy of them to study, 
and of him to compose. — John M. Mason, 1800. 

Throughout the whole web of national existence we trace the 
golden thread of human progress toward a higher and better es- 
tate. — James A. Garfield. 

98 



SHALL WE BE JOINED IN THE SHAME 

OF SHANTUNG? 

The plea is made that Japan has shed her blood in war for the 
conquest of the province of Shantung-, and should not be denied the 
fruits of victory. Is the United States Senate not acting the 
part of a big- bully in refusing to help turn over to Japan the 
Chinese soil taken from Germany, we are seriously asked? 

Is Japanese blood more precious than American blood? Have 
Americans, too, not shed blood and spent treasure in this war, far 
l)eyond anything yielded up by Japan? Did we, too, not take ter- 
ritory from Germany ? Are we demanding that this territory be 
given to us? Or, to drav\^ a parallel, are we asking that a slice 
of Belgian soil be given to the United States on the ground that 
our men and money helped expel the late claimant to Belgium? 

And if we did not shed that blood and spend that treasure to 
despoil an enemy, or rob a friend of territory, is there any injus- 
tice in declining to join in a compact whereby one ally shall rob 
another of her fairest province? Is there cause of offense in de- 
clining to fix for Japan a lower standard of international morality 
than we are willing to accept for ourselves ? 

What did Japan do in comparison with what we did to win the 
struggle against the central empires? And since we armed four 
million men for the war, sent half of them across the Atlantic to 
grapple v/ith the enemy, laid down sixty thousand precious lives 
on the battlefields of France, and gave three hundred thousand 
additional nam.es to the casualty lists; since we saddled ourselves 
with a debt of tliirty billions, and m.ade all the sacrifices necessary 
for the achievement of victory and peace, shall it be said that, 
asking nothing by way of indemnity or territory from the van- 
quished foe we may not at least have the feeble satisfaction of 
refusing to help an autocratic and militaristic nation that has 
done vastly less, to satisfy her imperialistic ambitions at the 
expense of an ally we induced to go into the war with the assur- 
ance that it would be to her advantage? 

We went into the war with clean hands and a clear conscience. 
Let us come out of it without the loss of either. We did no secret 
bargaining behind closed doors; no deception of our allies v/as 
committed by the United States government; we demanded no 
price for our service to the common cause. We have proclaimed 
to the vv'orld that our purpose was to bring mankind the justice 

99 



AMERICANISM 

of a new and better order of world affairs. We have borne our 
part in the fight. \Vhat crime have we committed, that in viola- 
tion of our high professions, in repudiation of our long record as 
the champion of the open door in the Orient and justice for China, 
we should be compelled to become parties to a compact whereby 
the great republic of the Orient formed in emulation of our own, 
is delivered to the domination of a pov/er whose claim is based 
upon the fact that she is armed to the teeth and able to take 
territory by violence from her weaker neighbor? 

If we are to be parties to international thievery, shall we have 
none of the loot? If we are to be assistant burglars, do we get 
none of the spoil? If we insist on sharing the dishonor of the 
crime of violence against China, shall we not be paid off for our 
participation? Othenvise why should we accept partnership in 
such a violation of international justice and good faith for no 
reason whatever except that we have gone to war and come out 
victorious ? 

We are told that if we refuse to give our approval, as a nation, 
to the seizure of Shantung by Japan, it will throw us into the 
shadow of war and we are asked if we are willing to send our 
sons to fight for the freedom of China. Is it a cause of war that 
we, asking nothing for ourselves in return for our vast sacrifice 
in blood and treasure, will not help another nation despoil her 
neighbors ? We are not proposing to force Japan out of Shantung. 
We are merely declaring, by our action, that we are unwilling to 
approve and underwrite the transaction whereby China parts with 
her property and her self i-espect and her sovereignty at the com- 
mand of allies who proclaim to the world that they went to war 
to end the very practices they thus commit. By refusing to 
assent to this arrangement, we are adopting the only ineans we 
have of protest ; any other protest would be like that of the man 
who helps commit a crime and then cards the newspapers with a 
signed expression of disapproval of the deed he has joined in 
doing. 

If we are to get nothing out of the war, let us at least not accept 
disgrace from it by reason of giving our assent to an arrangement 
whereby the unhappy nation we induced to enter this struggle, is 
despoiled of many thousand square miles of territory and thirty- 
eight millions of people. If we did not, after all, go to war in the 
cause of freedom, let us not make it of record that we went to war 
in behalf of enslavement. If it be said that we must accept the 
promise of Japan to negotiate with China for the restoration of 
her province, let it be answered that if this were the intention, no 
excuse whatever could be offered for not making the restoration 
at once or fixing a date when it will be done. A note without a 
due date is of no value. An agreement to return territory with- 
out fixing a time for the return is worthless, because it promises 

100 



AMERICANISM 

nothing- whatever. To all this talk the word "Korea," the steady 
recordaf Japanese aggression in China, is sufficient answer. 

When the advocates of the league of nations defend this Shan- 
tung transaction the people of this country get an insight into 
the sincerity of their pi'ofessions of purpose to introduce into the 
world, through this covenant, a nev/ order of world affairs. Search 
the history of the United States from the beginning and you will 
find no instraice in v/hich we have ever indulged in such an act 
of injustice and betrayal toward a friendly nation as we are asked 
to commit in the approval of this Shantung transaction. If this 
V.e the new pathway along which we are to be led, well may we 
hesitate to take a step further. If this be the sort of "new order" 
the league of nations is to introduce, let us cling to the old. 
—September 6, 1919. 

|e=ioi=D| 

It is only when our rights are invaded, or seriously menaced, 
that we resent injuries, or make preparations for our defense. 
With the movements in this hemisphere we are, of necessity, more 
immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to 
all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of 
the allied pov/ers is essentially different in this respect from that 
of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in 
their respective governments; and to the defense of our ov/n, 
which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treas- 
ure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citi- 
zens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this 
whole nation is devoted. 

We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations 
existing between the United States and those European powers, 
to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to 
extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as danger- 
ous to our peace and safety. 

With the existing colonies and dependencies of any European 
pov/er, we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But with 
the governments who have declared their independence and main- 
tained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration 
and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any inter- 
position for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any 
other manner their destiny by any European power, in any other 
light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward 
the United States.— From the message of President Monroe, De- 
cember, 1823. 

We ought always to act fairly and generously to other nations. 
In international matters I hold that we should have the same 
standard of morality that we have in private matters. But we 
must remember that our first duty is always to be loyal and patri- 

101 



AMERICANISM 

otic citizens of our own nation, defenders of her rights, maintain- 
ing her noblest traditions. These two facts should always be 
uppermost in our mind when we take up any proposal for a league 
of nations. We can then be loyal to great ideals as well as true 
to ourselves. — ^Theodore Roosevelt. 

Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early light 
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming — 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, 
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? 
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ; 
Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave 
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave? 



On that shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, 
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, 
What is that which the breeze, o'er towering steep, 
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses? 
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, 
In full glory reflected, now shines in the stream; 
'Tis the star-spangled banner; oh, long may it wave 
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave! 

And where are the foes who so vauntingly swore 

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion 

A home and a country should leave us no more? 

Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution. 

No refuge could save the hireling and slave 

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave; 

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave 

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand 

Between their loved homes and the war's desolation! 

Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land 

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. 

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just; 

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust;" 

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave 

O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 

— Francis Scott Key. 

We should do nothing inconsistent with the spirit and genius of 
our institutions. We should do nothing for revenge, but every- 
thing for security ; nothing for the past, everything for the pres- 
ent and the future. — James A. Garfield. 

102 



PEOPLE DEMAND REAL, NOT NOMINAL 
TREATY CHANGES 

Reservations or amendments in the covenant of the league of 
nations should be written by those who have shown themselves 
alive to the perils of the proposed world constitution, not by those 
who have shown themselves willing to sacrifice American rights, 
interests and ideals by the swallowing whole of the plan as brought 
home from Europe, and who are willing to have protective changes 
made only as a necessary concession to public sentiment. 

The feeling of the American people against any alien entangle- 
ment effected at the sacrifice of American nationalism, American 
independence or American welfare, is not only great, but it is 
growing. That sentiment demands not the mere camouflaging of 
the defects of the covenant, but actual changes which will prevent 
the proposed sacrifice of all that Americans have striven for and 
fought for throughout neai'ly a century and a half of national 
existence. 

Unless the treaty is so changed that it ceases to become an in- 
strument to be used for the subordination and ultimately the de- 
struction of a free and independent United States of America, then 
it should be rejected by those in the Senate whose hearts are still 
beating in svmpathy with traditional Americanism. 
—September 13, 1919. 



cmorzD 



Under the influence of rapidly increasing knowledge, the people 
have begun, in all forms of government, to think, and to reason, on 
affairs of state. Regarding government as an institution for the 
public good, they dem.and a knowledge of its operations, and a par- 
ticipation in its exercise. * * * When Louis XVI said, 'T am the 
state," he expressed the essence of the doctrine of unlimited pov/er. 
By the rules of that system, the people are disconnected fi'om the 
state; they are its subjects, it is their lord. These ideas, founded 
in the love of power, and long supported by the excess and the 
abuse of it, are yielding, in our age, to other opinions; and the 
civilized v/orld seems at last to be proceeding to the conviction of 
that fundamental and manifest ti'uth, that the powers of govern- 
ment are but a trust, and that they can not be lawfully exercised 
but for the good of the community. * * * Let our object be, our 
country, our whole country, and nothing but our country. And, 

10:3 



AMERICANISM 

by the blessing of God. may that country itself become a vast and 
splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, but of wisdom, 
of peace and of liberty, upon which the world may gaze with ad- 
miration forever ! — Daniel \¥ebster. 

We sit here in the Promised Land 

That flows with Freedom's honey and milk; 

But 'twas they won it, sword in hand. 

Making the nettle danger soft for us as silk. 

We welcome back our bravest and our best; — 

Ah me! not all! some come not with the rest. 

Who went forth brave and bright as any here! 

I strive to mix some gladness with my strain, 

But the sad strings complain. 

And will not please the ear: 

I sweep them for a paean, but they wane 

Again and yet again 

Into a dirge, and die away, in pain. 

In these brave ranks I only see the gaps, 

Thinking of the dear ones whom the dumb turf wraps, 

Dark to the triumph which they died to gain: 

Fitlier may others greet the living, 

For me the past is unforgiving; 

I with uncovered head 

Salute the sacred dead, 

Who went, and who return not. — Say not so! 

'Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay, 

But the high faith that failed not by the way; 

Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave; 

No bar of endless night exiles the brave; 

And to the saner mind 

We rather seem the dead that stayed behind. 

Blow, trumpets, all your exultations blow! 

For never shall their aureoled presence lack: 

I see them muster in a gleaming row. 

With ever-youthful brows that nobler show; 

We find in our dull road their shining ti-ack ; 

In every nobler mood 

We feel the orient of their spirit glow, 

Part of our life's unalterable good, 

Of all our saintlier aspiration; 

They come transfigured back, 

Secure from change in their high-hearted ways, 

Beautiful evermore, and with the rays 

Of morn on their white Shields of Expectation! 

— James Russell Lowell. 



104 



WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE TO THE 
PENDING COVENANT? 

One of the stock arguments of the proponents of the unamended 
league of nations covenant is that the opposition has no alterna- 
tive, constructive program. 

It is the chief offense of the makers of this covenant that in 
un-American, unconstitutional fashion, they have excluded from 
any constructive part in the formulation of the scheme any and 
all persons not willing to accept their opinions, hand-me-down 
style, from the one official and political leader who is alleged to 
possess the exclusive prerogative of representing the people of 
America in this matter. Clearly enough he, alone, does not repre- 
sent the people of America, because on the basis of a direct appeal 
that he be given a rubber stamp Senate committed to this very 
doctrine, a majority of more than a million votes was rolled up 
against him at the ballot boxes last November. The Constitution 
of the United States, moreover, defines clearly a division of this 
responsibility between the President and the Senate. Yet, 
throughout, in the appointment of his commission, in the formula- 
tion of the treaty and covenant, in the effort to put the thing 
over without yielding to the Senate the slightest voice in the mat- 
ter. President Wilson has deliberately and stubbornly sought to 
ignore and even to defy this coordinate treaty making branch of 
government. What opportunity has there been for constructive 
action in this matter by anyone but President Wilson himself? 
Who, then, is responsible for this condition of affairs? 

If, through the refusal of the administration senators to give 
consideration to the views of those who believe that the rights, 
interests and ideals of America are sacrificed in this treaty and 
covenant as it stands, and through their bourbon opposition to 
any modification or amendment or reservation in the treaty, mem- 
bers of the Senate more interested in the preservation of America 
than in the vindication of the administration are forced to vote 
against ratification of the treaty and covenant, and it thereby is 
defeated, who must accept the responsibility in the eyes of all 
fair-minded men? Those, surely, who take the position that the 
treaty and covenant must be accepted, defects, dangers and all, 
or rejected in toto. 

If modification of the treaty and covenant so as to protect Amer- 

105 



AMERICANISM 

lean sovereig'iity, American rig-lits, American ideals and just Amer- 
ican interests is refused by the agents of the administration in 
the Senate, then the duty of the Senate is clear — to reject. 

Then will come the opportunity for constructive suggestion. 
So far as the treaty is concerned, whether or not we are paities to 
it does not much matter. The treaty deals with the imposition 
of penalties and the distribution of spoils in territory and money, 
and the police and military duty incident to guaranteeing that 
the allied powers shall "get theirs." As we get nothing, we will 
lose nothing but trouble if we are not in on this particular job. 

The world's longing for some plan whereby the peace of the 
world may be preserved, so far as this is humanly possible, re- 
mains. Vv'^ithout the realization of this longing the war must 
be set down as a gigantic failure, out of which can come no com- 
pensation adequate to the sacrifices entailed. That longing finds 
no response in the peace treaty and covenant except in the re- 
sounding rhetoric of those Vv^ho defend it before the world. There 
can be no guaranteed peace unless the world, at least gradually, 
lays down its arms. Despite all the claims to the contrary, there 
is absolutely no provision for disarmament, or any provision 
whereby it is at all likely that any step will be taken in that 
direction, in either the treaty or covenant. The big military and 
naval programs proposed by the men who made this treaty, both 
in Europe and in the United States, prove that they themselves 
have no faith in their own professions in this respect. 

There is no provision in this treaty for the settlement of inter- 
national disputes on the basis of international law and equity 
rather than of force. For the covenant sets up, not a vv^orld court, 
but a world legislature; not a tribunal which is to decide interna- 
tional questions by judicial interpretation, but a legislative body, 
with powers of coercion, which is to decide such matters on the 
basis of interest. 

What the v/orld needs is a complete body of international law, 
dealing with all matters capable of becoming subjects of dispute 
between nations, — a body of international law formulated by a 
world conference, composed of representatives not merely of kings, 
emperors and presidents, but of the people acting through their 
legislative representatives, chosen just as our representatives in 
the Congress which formulated our Constitution were selected; 
representing in each case not merely one party, or faction, or 
person but the people as a whole, thus commanding the support 
and confidence of all elements. Then, for the interpretation of 
this law, dealing entirely with intei'national as differentiated from 
domestic questions, the world needs, as Colonel Roosevelt put it, 
"an am.plified Hague court, acting in a judicial and not a repre- 
sentative capacity;" a court, which, like our own Supreme Court, 



106 



AMERICANISM 

because of its separation from every interest in conflict, will com- 
mand for its decisions the world's confidence and acquiescence. 

Then if there be good faith in the declared desire of the powers 
with which we are associated for world peace, there will be an 
ag-reement for disarmament to that point below which the nations 
could not go with due regard for their domestic safety. The ab- 
sence of such an agreement from the Paris treaty and covenant 
demonstrates that those who wrote it had, as a matter of fact, 
no intention whatever of substituting the rule of justice for the 
rule of might among nations. The continuance of the spirit of 
imperialism, as exemplified in the desire for world trade and ter- 
ritorial domination, backed up either by military or naval suprem- 
acy, IS utterly inconsistent with the true spirit of a league of na- 
tions for the establishment and maintenance of peace in the 
world, — a fact which millions of people who at one time accepted 
the alluring prospectuses of the league of nations covenant as 
a substitute for any guarantee of the results desired in its actual 
contents, are beginning to realize. 

If, through the stubborn, autocratic, un-American refusal of 
the proponents of the pending treaty and league of nations to 
accept reasonable modifications, the defeat of the treaty is as- 
sured, the way will have been opened for entering upon an honest 
effort to secure a real arrangement for world cooperation for the 
maintenance of peace, security and liberty throughout the world. 
Because of that hope there are millions of liberal-minded men 
m America and throughout the world who hope that the defend- 
ers of the covenant will persist in their present destructive course. 
It is impossible for any unprejudiced student of this treaty and 
covenant to believe that it represents a forward step in the deliv- 
erance of humanity from the curse of war, the sway of tyranny 
or the clash of contending territorial, trade and dynastic ambi- 
tions whetted by fresh acquisitions as the spoils of war. The 
program prepared at Paris has the voice of progress, but the hand 
of reaction. 

Let us have, through the deliberate and free action of all the 
nations of the world, assembled upon our government's initiative 
m conference at Washington, the capital of the one nation which 
went into this war for the high purposes it is sought to fulfill 
in the new world order, a world congress, not to legislate in re- 
striction of the rights or interests of any nation, but to lay down 
Inroad legal principles of international cooperation, fundamental 
principles rather than a specific program, and then to erect a 
great world court to whose decisions these powers agree to bow 
as willingly as the American people bow to the decisions of their 
Supreme Court. Then, as a guarantee of good faith, let the na- 
tions of the earth agree to cease the maintenance of vast ai-mies 
and navies, abolish conscription for military or naval service, tear 

107 



AMERICANISM 

down and keep down to the limitations of domestic necessity, es- 
tablishments for the manufactine of the enginery of warfare, and 
thus make it impossible for any nation to war upon its neighbors 
without, by definite preparations, serving long notice of a declara- 
tion of war not only against the specific enemy, but agamst the 
world's desire for freedom fiorn the sacrifices of that organized 
butchery we call war. 
—September 13, 1919. 

RzzioniDl 



The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, 
in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little 
political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed 
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here 
let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none 
or a veiy remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in fre- 
quent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to 
our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to impli- 
cate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her 
politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friend- 
ships or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to 
pursue a different course. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why 
quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweav- 
ing our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our 
peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, 
interest or caprice? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with 
any portion of the foreign world, so far, I mean, as we are now at 
liberty to do it ; for let me not be understood as capable of patron- 
izing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no 
less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is 
always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engage- 
ments be observed in their genuine sense. But in my opinion it is 
unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them. 

Taking care to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a 
respectably defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary 
alliances for extraordinary emergencies.— George Washington. 

I do not believe that the United States should enter into a world- 
wide career of disinterested violence for the right ; because v/here 
both the lands and the issues involved are remote from us our 
people wouldn't know with certainty where the right lay and 
wouldn't feel that we ought to go into the quarrel. We have 
enough to do that is our business. — Theodore Roosevelt. 

108 



THE PEOPLE GROW WEARY OF GOVERNMENT 

BY FEAR 

The people have grown weary of government by fear. They 
accepted many repressive measures during the war, in the neces- 
sity of some of which they did not beheve. When American sol- 
diers are fighting at the front, it is the duty of every citizen to 
stand by what his government says is essential to standing by the 
flag. At that time, "Their's not to answer why." 

But the war is over ; the enemy is defeated and disarmed. The 
people grow weary of having their disposition to do whatever 
is bidden or suggested by executive authority taken for granted. 
They want a return to that government of public opinion for 
wiiich American institutions fundamentally stand. They are tired 
of being called *'pro-Germans" and "disloyalists" if they fail to 
accept without shadow of question whatever is handed down from 
high places as the law and the gospel. 

The people are tired of being bullied and threatened into doing 
things their judgment does not approve. They are weary of 
such treatment at the hands of their representatives in authority ; 
they are doubly tired of it as it emanates from private groups 
and classes and elements engaged in swishing clubs around the 
ears of the people and telling them to stand and deliver on penalty 
of the terrible things that are going to be done to them by indi- 
vidual or mass movement. 

It is a poor student of popular psychology who does not recog- 
nize and reckon with this state of the public mind. Bullyism in 
politics, in industrial relations and in public affairs not only will 
not win hereafter, but it will bring reaction seriously harmful to 
those who keep on keeping on in this practice. 

One cause of the tremendous popular uprising against the un- 
amended, made-in-Paris covenant is that an organized effort has 
been made to put it over simply by ordering the people to accept 
it by authority. In this attempt the fact has been overlooked 
that in this country the authority to make contracts for the 
whole American people is not centered in one man's hands, but 
is divided under the Constitution between the legislative and exec- 
utive branches of government. 

Depending upon the impetus of the disposition of the people 
during the war to look to the White House for orders, the attempt 
has been made to put this thing over on the people by the pre- 

109 



AMERICANISM 

tense that any disagreement with President Wilson is treason. 
This in the face of the fact that President Wilson has not recog- 
nized his mutual oblig-ation to the American people. He has 
treated the negotiation of the treaty and covenant as a matter 
of personal prerogative. He did not ask the people to authorize 
him to represent this country in writing a world constitution; he 
did not even ask them if they wanted a v/orld constitution. He 
did not appoint a representative peace delegation, and when it 
proved to be stronger than he supposed it was, he ignored the 
advice of its mem.bers whenever it failed to coincide with his pre- 
conceived notions. He did not proceed with the "advice and con- 
sent" of the Senate. On the contrary he has ignored and defied 
the Senate and is today traveling over the country in a special 
train at public expense endeavoring to arouse the people against 
their representatives in the legislative body which legally has as 
much to do with making a treaty as he has, and is guilty only 
of the crime of doing its sworn duty under the Constitution by 
considering this vital national matter upon its merits. 

And what are the arguments whereby President Wilson at- 
tempts to coerce Congress to do his bidding? They represent 
clearly a phase of government by fear. He resorts naturallj^ to 
the weapon of the autocrat. He appeals to the fears of the sena- 
tors and to the fears of the people. He declares that the senators 
who fail to agree with him are going to be "gibbeted." He calls 
them names: "Contemptible quitters," "intellectual pigmies," 
"reactionaries," "men without vision," "cowards" and the like. He 
tells the people that if they do not swallow this treaty and cove- 
nant without the crossing of a "t" or the dotting of an "i" ter- 
rible things are going to happen to them. They will have strikes, 
war, bolshevism, high cost of living and a whole brood of troubles 
now perilously present after Mr. Wilson has been for six and a 
half years in the White House under pledge to eliminate them. 

At the same time private organizations, representing the spe- 
cial interests of groups and elements closely associated politically 
with President Wilson, have moved upon Congress threatening the 
representatives of the people with paralysis of industry unless 
they adopt certain governmental policies which would mark the 
beginning of complete state socialism. Heretofore we have deter- 
mined political questions in the court of public opinion. Now we 
are told they are going to be settled with a club brandished under 
the noses of the people of this country. 

We repeat, the people of the United States are getting weary 
of threats and orders,- of bulldozing and scares. The backs of 
the great masses of the people of this country, — the overwhelm- 
ing majority of the people of this country, — of the workers of 
this country, — are to the wall. They have been the "goats" of 
the situation up to the present time. They have been soaked and 
bilked, exploited and run over. They are getting ready to tell 

110 



AMERICANISM 

the demagogues and the doctrinaires of all breeds and varieties 
where to head in. This great popular majority includes most of 
the men who were called to the colors to serve their country dur- 
ing the past two years at great personal loss, discomfort and sacri- 
fice, v/hile many of the most loud-mouthed of those who are now 
telling the people what they have got to do, or get a rough-house, 
v/ere having the time of their lives at the expense of the genei'al 
public. 

There is going to be an election in this country little more than 
a year hence. The people of this country are getting ready to 
make a house cleaning at that time. They are going to clean up 
on the politicians who have wasted the people's substance in riot- 
ous living, and sacrificed their rights and interests for personal 
and political ends. The voters of this country are going to strike a 
blow at the polls in November, 1920, for government of the people, 
for the people, by the people, as contrasted with government of 
the people for the benefit of groups, classes, partisans and crowds, 
having in mind in their exploitation of the public only their ovvn 
selfish interests, until the vrhole country, even the members of 
these very groups, have found themselves far v/orse off than they 
ever were before, while profiteering, speculation and thimbleiigging 
of the public has become the I'egular order of the day. Produc- 
tion has been curtailed, efficiency has been impaired, prices have 
been enthroned, laziness and inefficiency have been rewarded, hon- 
est business has been penalized and oppressed, speculative adven- 
turers have been given fi-ee reign, honest competition has been de- 
stroyed, monopolistic exploitation has gone unpunished; all this 
to the tune of high-flown phrases about the people's rights and 
interests thus so ruthlessly sacrificed. 

And as the fitting climax of all this carnival of demagogy, 
waste, incompetency, discrimination, carried on at the very time 
the fighting men of the republic have been writing in their own red 
blood a new and glorious chapter in the annals of Americanism, 
we have the proposition to sacrifice the rights, interests and 
ideals of America in a covenant covertly connived at by the very 
influences and elements which have put all this over on the Amer- 
ican people here at home. And, again, — government by fear, — we 
are threatened that if v;e do not do this thing, after all we have 
done to bring peace to the world through the saci'ifice of our blood 
and treasure, we will become pariahs in the community of na- 
tions, and that the rest of the world will run amuck, commit sui- 
cide and take us along with them, unless we take on the job of 
policing and providing for the rest of the world for all time to 
come. 

The people of this country are not cov/ards. Their traditions 
are not those of timidity. They are not a people to be scared or 
threatened or bullied into doing things. They never have l^een 
and they never will be. Government by fear does not go here. 

Ill 



AMERICANISM 

The people of America still have in their hearts the spirit of the 
Declaration of Independence. No combination of classes or ele- 
ments, no propagandists of any mere caste or dynasty or alien 
interest, can permanently put anything over on them. Never 
was that clearer than it is today. In the splendid rise of Ameiican 
public opinion to meet the fateful emergency of this hour has 
come anew the triumphant vindication of real democracy; free, 
independent, deliberative American democracy which bows its 
neck to no master, foreign or domestic, but carries its sovereignty 
beneath its own hat. 

The people of this country, themselves not cowards, nor the 
sons of cowards, want brave, true, modest, devoted men in pubhc 
place ; men who can think of public questions in terms other than 
those of their own interests and advantage ; who at the command 
of their own judgment and conscience are willing on occasion to 
take a chance by telling elements which seek to govern by fear 
that they will get nothing from government that is not for the 
general good. The people are tired of truckling, fawning oppor- 
tunists in public place who think of no public problem except in 
terms of votes; not the votes of the majority, but the votes which 
stand ready to be delivered in blocks in exchange for special ad- 
vantage surrendered at the sacrifice of the general welfare. This 
lesson should not be lost upon the leadership of either great party. 
For in this hour of turmoil and anxiety and uncertainty and un- 
rest, the cry of the American people is, echoing the words of J. G. 
Holland : 

"God give us men! A time like this demands 

Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and willing hands: 
Men whom the lust of office does not kill; 

Men whom the spoils of office can not buy; 

Men who have honor; men who will not lie; 
Men who can stand before a demagogue 

And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking, 
Tall men, sun crowned, who live above the fog 

In public dutv and in private thinking." 
—September 20, 1919. 

|C=IOEIZ>| 

We are bound to maintain public liberty, and, by the example 
of our own systems, to convince the world that order and law, reli- 
gion and morality, the rights of conscience, the rights of persons 
and the rights of property, may all be preserved and secured in 
the most perfect manner, by a government entirely and purely 
elective. If we fail in this, our disaster will be signal, and will 
furnish an argument stronger than has yet been found, in support 
of those opinions which maintain that government can rest safely 
on nothing but power and coercion. — Daniel Webster. 



112 



SOME FLIMSY SOPHISTRY ON THE SHAME 

OF SHANTUNG 

President Wilson said at San Francisco: "Which of these gen- 
tlemen who are now objecting' to the cession of the German rights 
in Shantung to Japan were prominent in protesting against the 
original cession? It makes my heart burn when some men are so 
late in doing justice." 

According to President Wilson's present claims as to why we 
went to war with Germany, his own heart, then, ought to bura 
brightly over his own deliberate processes of espousing the cause 
of justice. 

But this talk about our failure to protest over the German 
seizure of Shantung being a bar to protest now is sophistry of 
the flimsiest sort. We were not parties to that transaction any 
more than we were parties to the hundred other cases of similar 
injustice in China and elsev/here throughout the world. 

But we are parties to this treaty President Wilson has brought 
home from Paris. We are asked to sign the contract under which 
the territory of one ally is taken and handed over to another ally. 
We are requested by President Wilson to join in committing this 
injustice. Then we are asked, under Article X of the league, to 
guarantee the permanency of the seizure. 

Is President Wilson unable to differentiate between our failure 
to protest against the dismemberment of Poland and the right or 
wrong of our joining in a treaty to steal territory from one coun- 
try and hand it to another in fulfillment of secret treaties to which 
we were not parties? Is he unable to tell the difference between 
one's failure to pursue every thief who comes into the neighbor- 
hood, and acting as a thief's accomplice? 

"It is the first time in the history of the world anything has 
ever been done for China," declared President Wilson. It is not 
the first time, but only the last tim.e, that anything has been done 
to China. But China is not so completely lacking, as President 
Wilson professes himself to be in knowledge and appreciation of 
what has been done for China by this nation in the past. China 
knows that while the other powers with whom President Wilson 
would permanently ally us, and in whose last foray upon China he 
would have us join, have been robbing China, this country has been 
helping her. China knows that this country prevented the execu- 
tion of a general policy of partition in China by the European 

113 



AMERICANISM 

powers following the Boxer uprising. China knows that alone 
among the powers the United States returned the unexpended 
portion of the indemnity exacted from China after the capture of 
Pekin by the allied forces to pay for personal injuries done for- 
eigners. Of this episode President Wilson professes himself ignor- 
ant. He knows nothing of the "open door" policy of Hay and 
McKinley. He says, "for the first time in the history of the 
world" something has been done for China. 

Well, if this service done China is the realization of all the 
beautiful purposes and lofty ideals professed in behalf of the 
league of nations covenant, if this be the new order they are talk- 
ing about, then God help the weak nations of the earth. For 
if robbery can be camouflaged under the rhetoric of pseudo-ideal- 
ism to look like philanthropy, we must be well on the way toward 
the establishment of what the Chinese themselves, unconscious 
of the philanthropic objects of the new world government, have 
already dubbed: "The league of thieves." 
—September 27, 1919. 

IcnoEZDl 



Thou, too, sail on, Ship of State! 
Sail on, Union, strong and great! 
Humanity with all its fears, 
With all the hopes of future years, 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate! 
We know what Master laid thy keel. 
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel. 
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, 
What anvils rang, what hammers beat. 
In what a forge and what a heat 
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 

'Tis of the wave and not the rock ; 

'Tis but the flapping of the sail. 

And not a rent made by the gale ! 

In spite of rock and tempest's roai , 

In spite of false lights on the shore, 

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! 

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, 

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 

Our faith triumphant o'er our fears. 

Are all with thee — are all with thee! 

— Henry W. Longfellow. 

Let us have faith that right makes might; and, in that faith, 
let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it. — 
Abraham Lincoln. 

114 



SOME QUESTIONS 

Special appeal has been made by propagandists of the unamend- 
ed covenant of the league of nations to business men, ministers of 
the gospel and wage earners. For these three influential groups 
of American citizens we have a few questions. 

TO THE BUSINESSMAN: Would you sign a contract, affect- 
ing your private interests, concerning the meaning of which there 
is serious disagreement among friends equally intelligent, some 
of them believing it means your ruin, without clearing up all 
doubts by inserting in the contract your intei-pretation of it in 
terms nobody could misunderstand ? If those of your friends who 
say this contract means nothing to your detriment, insist that if 
you make sure of that by saying so in the contract the other 
parties to the agreement will refuse to sign it, have you not room 
to doubt their good faith or the good faith of the other parties in 
interest? Suppose it should l)e suggested to you to sign the con- 
tract and ask the other parties to change it aftei'ward; what 
would you think of the intelligence of such advice? Now if you 
would not sign an uncertain contract affecting* your private prop- 
erty or personal rights without meeting in it every objection your 
lawyer could offer, would you show less concern for the rights and 
interests of your country by committing yourself unreservedly 
to an argeement, as presented, in the original making of which 
you had no part, knowing that this agreement would affect vitally 
the future of your country? 

TO THE MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL: Would you consent 
to the formation of a league of religions, including Mohammedan- 
ism, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, Shintoism and all oth- 
er form.s of religion, which would have the power over the churches 
of the world that the league of nations is to be given over the gov- 
ernments of the world ? Would you agree to divide up the people 
of the world among the existing religious faiths on the basis of 
the status quo, and to defend the integrity of these other religious 
bodies upon call ? Would you agree to such a f oiTn of government 
even for Catholics and Protestants in the United States? Would 
you agree to it if your own particular religious body were to be in 
a minority in the world church government, and some other body 
of similar size were to be given six votes in one of the two branches 
of the world religious parliament to your one? If you wouldn't 
make this sacrifice of your church, why would you make it of your 
country? Are the political ideals of America and Japan more 

115 



AMERICANISM 

remote than tlie ideals of Christianity and Shintoism? How may 
pohtical and rehg-ious ideals best be established in the world, by 
force 01' by example ? 

TO THE WAGE EARNER: Are you ready to sacrifice the 
American standard of wages and Kving, with all that it implies 
of comfort and pleasure and opportunity, in the vain hope that 
the leveling down of our standard will lift that of the hundreds 
of millions of peasant, coolies and peons in the rest of the world? 
Does the common standard of life proposed in the league of na- 
tions covenant and its world government of labor appeal to you 
as meaning anything to wage earners in the land of labor's best 
estate and highest opportunity? Are you seeking the "removal of 
economic barriers and quality of trade opportunity" which means 
that labor's rewards and opportunities are to be standardized 
throughout the world? Do you believe there is really any good 
reason why Americans should divide up with the rest of the world 
the rich heritage which has come down to them by the favor of 
God, the sacrifices of our fathers and the beneficent influence of 
institutions which have given us a nation without caste or class? 
Shall we level ourselves down to the rest of the world, or shall 
we invite the rest of the world to lift itself to our standards ? Are 
you willing to be bound to fight for the defense of your country, 
and for the defense of the rest of the v;orld as well, only in order 
that American markets m.ay be thrown open, under the Third of 
the Fourteen points and the sway of the league of nations, to the 
exploitation of alien producers who have had nothing to do with 
upbuilding your country and will have nothing to do with main- 
taining it? Do you believe it is up to us to become "the servants 
of mankind," rather than tlie masters of our own destiny and the 
world's great v^^orking model of progress and prosperity under 
genuine representative republican democracy: do you prefer pre- 
tended democracy under imperial institutions? 
—September 27,^1919. 



cinoE=) 



I trust I understand and truly estimate the right of self-govern- 
ment. My faith in the proposition that each man should do pre- 
cisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively his own, lies at 
the foundation of the sense of justice there is in me. I extend 
the principle to communities of men as well as individuals. 

I so extend it because it is politically wise in saving us from 
broils about matters which do not concern us. Here, or at Wash- 
ington, I would not trouble myself with the oyster laws of Virginia, 
or the cranberry laws of Indiana. The doctrine of self -government 
is right — absolutely and eternally right. — Abraham Lincoln, in 
debate with Douglas, 1854. 



116 



PATRIOTS MUST MEET THE CHALLENGE 

OF LAWLESSNESS 

Whence comes the spirit of lawlessness prevalent in the country 
to an extent hitherto unknown, and which in recent months has 
found increasing expression in violence of utterance and action 
without parallel in previous American history? 

Pailly, of course, it is the aftermath of the war, which has 
disturbed conditions, let loose passions, stirred desires and spread 
unrest throughout the world, to such an extent that civilization 
itself demands the active effort for its preservation of every man 
v/ho has anything at stake in the salvation of the world from chaos. 
In the present unsettled condition of affairs the agitator who plays 
upon human discontent for the fulfillment of sinister ends, finds 
fruitful opportunity. The strain of the situation has told upon 
the impractical idealists who are the natural, though involuntary, 
partners of the designing demagogue in the creation of human 
liells paved with good intentions. The result is a situation perilous 
in the extreme to humanity. Only the courage and persistence 
of devoted, thoughtful, sane, unselfish men stands between society 
?.nd the chaos produced by the demagogues and the doctrinaires in 
Russia, where in the name of human welfare humanity has been 
crucified en masse. 

To what extent is lawlesness on the pavement due to exhibitions 
in high places of the spirit of lawlessness, of rebellion against the 
restraints of orderly governmental procedure under the Constitu- 
tion of this republic, or arbitrary exercise of power and of attacks 
upon the supreme legislative power of the land, not for its opin- 
ions and convictions alone, but for the very act of exercising legal, 
constitutional functions in the discharge of sworn duty? 

To what extent is the disposition to overthrow law and order 
and government by fear and force due to attacks upon the funda- 
mentals of American government by officials sworn to their pro- 
tection and the applause and emulation of that example by parti- 
sans of such procedure? To what extent is all this due not only 
to preachments in the past that this is a government of, by and 
for the special interests, and that the time is at hand for the usher- 
ing in of the new freedom from the checks and balances of repre- 
sentative republicanism, of deliberative democracy, but to repre- 
sentations now that a Senate of the United States, jointly charged 
under the Constitution with the responsibility of perfecting inter- 

117 



AMERICANISM 

national eng-agements of the United States, is guilty of usurpation 
in the mere act of deliJDeration upon a pact which involves for all 
time the very destiny of the United States? 

With one branch of the treaty making power assaulting another 
for the mere exercise of its constitutional functions, and demand- 
ing for itself the sole and exclusive right of doing a thing the 
Constitution clearly charges both branches of government with 
performing, and accompanying these attacks with threats of polit- 
ical punishment; with such words being used in the belittling of 
that coordinate branch of government as "intellectual pygmies," 
"cowardly quitters," men without vision or altruism or any motives 
but the meanest for that attitude upon the most important public 
question that has arisen since the sixties ; with all this going on, 
and v/ith partisans of the administration echoing this lawless talk, 
what wonder that words are converted into deeds in Oklahoma, 
and a senator of the United States is mobbed by partisans of the 
administration ? 

There has not been in the whole history of the United States 
so violent and unreasonable a campaign of misrepresentation as 
that which has persistently been carried on for weeks by partisans 
of the administration against the majority mem-bership of the 
Senate of the United States. And, strangely enough, this violent, 
objurgatory, proscriptive, intolerant assault upon men guilty of 
the mere crime of doing their swom duty, has not been confined 
to leaders or followers of the political party in power. It has been 
taken up by many men professing political independence, and lack 
of partisan bias, but who have given to the country the most as- 
tounding exhibition of partisan bias, using that phrase in the 
narrowest sense, this country has ever seen. This hateful mob 
spirit, so destructive of all that deliberative democracy stands for, 
has been reflected in magazines professing freedom from personal 
or partisan partiality, but which in some instances are controlled 
by influences far more sinister than political party affiliation. It 
has reflected itself even in the columns of the religious press and 
pulpit, in the school room, and in other agencies which, for their 
own good and the country's good, should have been kept free from 
this lawless factionalism that has sought to break down the bar- 
riers imposed by the Constitution between any one man or set of 
men and this country's dearly bought rights, interests and ideals. 

To what extent is the decay of patriotism (|ue to the preaching 
of internationalism; the socialistic internationalism of the anti- 
patriot and the idealistic internationalism of the well meaning but 
misguided altruists who have been misled by dreams of an earthly 
millennium to be produced by man-made rearrangements of politic- 
al forms? Whatever the motive of the internationalist, whether 
it be hatred of this country or a sickly sentimentalism which in 
saving the world would lose the world's best hope of freedom and 
of progress, — the free and independent republic of the United 

118 



AMERICANISM 

States; whatever the motive, the effect of it all is the same; the 
breaking down of the devotion of the people of this country to 
their own nation and their own flag". 

The level-headed, soundly patriotic, undeluded people of the 
United States of America, men who in attaining world "vision" 
have not lost their national eyesight, must rally to the defense of 
their institutions, oi their country and its laws. They must preach 
Dersistently and fearlessly the doctrine of obedience to law and 
regard for the checks and balances of free government which alone 
stand between the individual and tyranny, — the tyranny of the 
autocrat or the tyranny of the mob ; the one as dangerous as the 
other. Wherever the laws or institutions of this country are as- 
sailed, whether by the mob in the streets, whose weapons are the 
bludgeon, the rope and the torch, or the orator on the soap box 
or the pulpit or the platform or the stump, whose weapons are 
words which seek to sway the crowd to break down the authority 
of the representatives of the people in the discharge of their sworn, 
sacred duty to the people; there those must rally to the defense 
of their country vvho believe with Lincoln that they who war upon 
the Constitution or the laws trample into the dirt the memory of 
our forefathers v/hose blood and treasure were poured out that 
we might enjoy the priceless heritage of lil^erty guaranteed and 
protected by law. 

Let us have an end of the doctrine that there is anything m this 
world of hu/man devising that is "bigger" or dearer to the Ameri- 
can people than the American government. The brain of the ideal- 
ist may weave a fabric of gossamer that shines in the sunlight for 
a day, "but the government of the republic of the United States is 
something more than a cob-web spun in the imagination of dream- 
ers. Into the fabric of that government have been woven the 
labors and the prayers, the dreams and the tears, the blood and 
the treasure, of five generations of strivers after the light of free- 
dom and order who lived and labored in liberty's behalf before 
America was born. 

The drums of '76, of '12, of '61, of '98, of '17 are beating once 
again. They call to the colors of peaceful but militant endeavor 
every citizen of America worthy of the name. It is their duty and 
opportunity to preserve against external and internal aggression 
all that Washington fought for and Lincoln died for; this govern- 
ment of laws rather than of men; this republic of institutional 
liberty; this nation where every citizen is a sovereign but none 
can be a tyrant ; this land where public opinion, deliberately formed 
and freely and constitutionally expressed is the only power to 
which free men yield allegiance; a government which can never 
be m.ade the personal property of any leader, or element, or fac- 
tion, or party, but belongs to all the people and to every branch of 
their government, exercising its powers in the calm light of reason 
and justice, without usurpation or intimidation. 

119 



AMERICANISM 

In every community in this country let the forces of law and 
order under the free institutions of the republic of the United 
States, dedicate themselves to the national service not only of 
obedience to law on their own part, but of requiring, and com- 
pelling-, if necessary, the observance of national, state and local 
law and respect for American institutions, in letter and in spirit, 
by all others, regardless of station, that 

''Government of the people, by the people, for the people 

"Shall not perish from the earth." 
—October 11, 1919. 



Monticello, October 24, 1823. 
To the President (James Monroe) : 

Dear Sir, — The question presented by the letters you have sent 
me, is the most momentous which has ever been offered to my 
contemplation since that of Independence. That made us a nation, 
this sets our compass and points the course which we are to steer 
through the ocean of time opening on us. And never could we 
embark on it under circumstances more auspicious. Our first and 
fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the 
broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to inter- 
meddle with cis-Atlantic affairs. America, north and south, has a 
set of interests distinct from those of Europe, and peculiarly her 
own. She should therefore have a system of her ov/n, separate 
and apart from that of Europe. While the last is laboring to 
become the domicile of despotism, our endeavor should surely be, 

to make our hemisphere that of freedom. 

* ♦ * 

Its object is to introduce and establish the American system, 
of keeping out of our land all foreign powers, of never permitting 
those of Europe to intermeddle with the affairs of our nations. 
It is to maintain our own principle, not to depart from it. * * * 

I have been so long weaned from political subjects, and have so 
long ceased to take any interest in them, that I am sensible I am 
not qualified to ofl:er opinions on them worthy of any attention. 
But the question now proposed involves consequences so lasting, 
and effects so decisive of our future destinies, as to rekindle all 
the interest I have heretofore felt on such occasions, and to induce 
me to the hazard of opinions, which will prove only my wish to 
contribute still my mite towards anything which may be useful 
to our country. And praying you to accept it at only what it is 
worth, I add the assurance of my constant and affectionate friend- 
ship and respect. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



120 



WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE AND CHARITY 

FOR ALL 

It has been necessary in the discussion of the dangers of the 
league of nations covenant as brought home from Europe to call 
attention to the dangers of Ameiican entanglement in European 
affairs ; to cite the enormous territorial acquisitions of other great 
powers as the result of the treaty of peace; to refer to the tend- 
ency of these nations to keep their own interests first in mind, and 
to v/arn the American people that the history and traditions of 
these European and Asiatic powers does not justify the belief that 
they are ready to participate in a new world order from which 
extreme nationalism is, according to the writers of the prospec- 
tuses, to be excluded. 

This does not express hostility to these alien powers on the part 
of the special champions of American interests.' It merely means 
that the America-first elements in this country do not propose to 
delude themselves or their countrymen as to the real purposes of 
these foreign powers. We have no right in this country to criti- 
cize the disposition of Great Britain, France, Japan and Italy to 
add to their own wealth, power and economic opportunity. In 
fact there are many people in this country who only wish that our 
representatives at Paris had shown the same loyalty to and inter- 
est in their own land as the representatives of European and 
Asiatic pov/ers did in the welfare of the peoples for whom they 
spoke at the peace conference. 

The true American nationalist, anxious above all else for the 
welfare of his country and his countrymen, desires the closest and 
most friendly relations v/ith foreign nations through which the 
peace and prosperity of his own country may be ensured. No true 
American can but feel the highest admiration and the most lively 
good will toward nations, such as France, Great Britain and Italy, 
with whom we have recently been fighting shoulder to shoulder 
for the safety of civilization. Bad feeling or war between this 
country and these nations is unthinkable. But this does not pre- 
vent the level-headed American from recognizing the fact that the 
tendencies and traditions and impulses and prejudices and rivalries 
of these countries, rooted in centuries of experience, must be taken 
into account in any common sense adjustment of the world's af- 
fairs. Shutting one's eyes to the conditions which have kept 
Europe almost constantly at war for the last century and a third 

121 



AMERICANISM 

wliile this nation has been nearly all tlie time free from war and 
the menace of war, does not change these conditions. Big- talk, 
maisical rhetoric, imaginative oratory, will not of themselves create 
a new heaven and a new earth, despite the superstitious faith some 
people have in their ability to make the world over by the free use 
of the contents of the dictionary. 

The policy of the America first people of the United States is 
the policy of the founders of this republic, as expressed in the 
words of Washington, — good will toward all nations, entangling al- 
liances with none. This is not an expression of hostility, but of 
the most intelligent friendship toward the rest of the world. Noth- 
ing breeds misunderstanding and war like international relation- 
ships based upon imperfect understanding. The Senate of the 
United States, in making clear the meaning of this country in en- 
tering a league of nations, is clearing away multiplied causes of 
war, and is thus performing the best possible service to this re- 
public and to civilization, despite the stupid, unpatriotic outcry 
against the course of this coordinate treaty making branch of our 
governm.ent. 
—October 11, 1919. 



CZ20EZD 



Without attempting extended argument in reply to these posi- 
tions it may not be amiss to suggest that the doctrine upon which 
we stand is strong and sound because its enforcement is important 
to our peace and safety as a nation and is essential to the integrity 
of our free institutions and the tranquil maintenance of our dis- 
tinctive form of government. It was intended to apply to every 
stage of our national life, and cannot become obsolete while our 
republic endures. If the balance of power is justly a cause for 
jealous anxiety among the governments of the Old World, and a 
subject for our absolute non-interference, none the less is an ob- 
servance of the Monroe Doctrine of vital concei'n to our people and 
their government. * * * The Monroe Doctrine finds its recognition 
in those principles of international law which are based upon the 
theory that every nation shall have its rights protected and its 
just claims enforced. — Grover Cleveland, 1895. 

This is a republic, and neither Mammon nor Anarchy shall be 
king. The American asks only for a fair field and an equal chance. 
He believes that every man is entitled for himself and his chil- 
dren to the full enjoyment of all he honestly earns. But he will 
seek and find the means for eradicating conditions which hope- 
lessly handicap him from the start. In this contest he does not 
want the assistance of the red flag, and he regards with equal hos- 
tility those who march under that banner and those who furnish 
argument and excuse for its existence. — Chauncey M. Depew. 

122 



WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT THE PARIS 
PEACE CONFERENCE 

Gradually the whole truth about what happened to us at Paris 
is coming out. We are beginning- to understand why, when Lloyd 
(ieoi'ge mentioned the league of nations in parliament, he was 
compelled to "beg" the lords, gentlemen and commoners there 
assembled "not to laugh," 

On November 11th a thirty days armistice was signed, ending 
the World war. This armistice imposed conditions on the enemy 
^vhich v/ell began the work of rendering him impotent from a mili- 
tary and naval standpoint. Because thei-e had been an abortive 
effort to secure a negotiated peace a few weeks before, causing 
general protest in the United States where the proposition was 
seriously entertained by the government, and because Germany 
announcd that she was entering into an arm.istice with the expecta- 
tion of a peace based on Mr. Wilson's Fourteen points, the allies 
believed it was necessary to make it impossible for President Wil- 
son to be the determinative factor in the peace conference. In 
this they succeeded. 

Measures to this end were proposed by Clemenceau and accepted 
by Lloyd George. Though Germiany on November 12th asked 
President Wilson to begin arrangements for a peace parley, and on 
November 18th President Vv'ilson announced he would attend the 
conference, the opening of the peace conference was set on De- 
cember 5th, one day after President Wilson sailed for France, not 
immediately, as might have been expected in the ordinary method 
of procedure and in courtesy to President Wilson, but for the first 
yveek in January, a full month later. As President Wilson arrived 
in Paris, the first thirty-day armistice expired, and the opportunity 
came for the prolonging of the armistice, but with additional 
conditions rendering Germany still more im.potent. The peace 
conference was not called the first week in January or until after 
another period of renewal of the terms of the armistice on Janu- 
ary 13th. These new armistice terms, dravv^n by the supreme war 
council, laid Gemiany flat on her back. Tlie German army v/as 
nov/ being rapidly demobilized. The American army was on the 
way home. The Biitisli army was being withdravv'n. The Fi'ench 
army was held intact. It was now master of the situation. It 
could march to Berlin at any moment without serious opposition. 
The terms of armistice were such that a peace treatj^ was neces- 

123 



AMERICANISJ\I 

sary only to write the will of Clemenceau into it. President Wilson 
began to play the game with every high card in the hands of his 
friendly antagonists. 

But Clemenceau found Mr. Wilson willing to still further post- 
pone the consideration of a peace treaty until a league of nations 
covenant was prepared. Clem.enceau and Lloyd George found Mr. 
Wilson willing to surrender most of his Fourteen points not only 
as respected the treaty but in the formulation of a scheme of world 
government, from which Europe would reap the advantages and 
to v/hich America would make the sacrifices. The so-called peace 
conference was kept busy until February 15th considering the de- 
tails of the league of nations covenant ; then President Wilson left 
for a visit to the United States. 

Meanwhile terms of peace with Germany were being made by 
the allies through the armistice method. On March 7th a parley 
for the renewal of the armistice was broken off when Germany 
refused to give up ships demanded. Next day Germany decided 
to give up the ships on the promise of food. 

So the parley continued. The terms of peace were left entirely 
to the allies. President Wilson was interested only in the league 
of nations covenant. France and Great Britain were far more 
anxious than President Wilson could be for the adoption of a league 
of nations which would be a means of maintaining the status quo 
in the world after the vanquished had been stripped of her terri- 
torial possessions and these had been added to the far-flung empire 
of England and France. 

This is what happened at Paris. If President Wilson went to 
Europe with the idea of dominating the situation he must have 
come av/ay with the knowledge that he had been outwitted at 
every point, and that his league of nations covenant was as far 
from being a lealization of the altruistic world order outlined in 
his Fourteen points as old-fashioned European diplomacy, in com- 
plete command of the situation, could make it. 

If President Wilson, realizing the situation, had risen from the 
council table when the secret treaties were brought forth, and the 
knowledge came that the peace was one in which our alhes were 
to secure all the material advantages an^i we were to be compelled 
to surrender the ideals we had so widely advertised as the cause 
of our entry into the war through the speeches and writings of 
President Wilson, and had sailed back to the United States with 
his report of a futile effort made in behalf of humanity and peace 
and a new world order, he would have loomed large in history and 
in American esteem. But President Wilson came home defeated, 
tricked, outwitted, with the claim of complete victory i-ather than 
the confession of defeat. Upon these claims the facts as they are 
understood by all who know the inner workings of the peace con- 
ference constitute an illuminating commentary. 
—October 11, 1919. 

124 



HOW THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS COVENANT 
WAS ADOPTED 

The proceedings at Paris were covered by a horde of hand- 
picked newspaper correspondents. And the proceedings were suc- 
cessfully covered — up. If the world had been told the real story 
of the manipulation and intrigue which led up to the decisions at 
Paris, universal would have been the wonder and regret that Pres- 
ident Wilson did not rise from the council table and come home 
until such time as Europe was ready for a permanent peace of 
justice rather than a patched up truce founded on the flimsy basis 
of the satisfaction of the sordid, selfish greed for domination of 
certain powers that were talking one way and acting another. It 
was once said that in diplomacy language is a means of concealing 
thought. With Creel at one end of the cables and Burleson at the 
other, journalism during the peace conference was merely a means 
of concealing or camouflaging the facts. 

A participant in the plenary session of the peace conference at 
v^hich the league of nations covenant was adopted has given to 
The National Republican a verbal account of the proceedings in 
connection with the "adoption" of this v/orld constitution. For 
weeks three men had been working on the league of nations cove- 
nant. Clemenceau, Lloyd George and Wilson sat behind closed 
doors in exemplification of that soulful phrase: "Open covenants 
openly arrived at." Inquiries as to what was going on in the 
sanctum sanctorum were met by the whispered shibboleth: 
"League of Nations." 

At last the doors were thrown open and a plenary session was 
announced. The representatives of the allied and associated pow- 
ers assembled. The hall was more than half full of the members 
of the delegations from the Big Five powers, with their numerous 
secretaries and attaches. The delegations of the other many but 
minor powers gathered around the edges. The announcement was 
made by Clemenceau that a plan for a league of nations had been 
evolved. President Wilson spoke eloquently on the covenant, read- 
ing extracts from it, and printed copies were distributed among 
the delegations present, of course no time being given for reading 
of the document thus for the first time brought to the light, niuch 
less deliberation or discussion upon it. Lloyd George added a few 
v/ords in support of the covenant. The announcement was made 
that inquiries would be perniitted. When they were called for 

125 



AMERICANISM 

hands went up all over the house. The desire for move light was 
apparently pretty general. President Wilson then made a second 
speech. He declared that two courses were open: One the imme- 
diate adoption of the covenant, or extended debate which might 
indefinitely prolong the proceedings, which by word and manner 
he deprecated. Clemenceau then took the situation in hand. He 
called for a vote. Some hands went up, the whole miscellaneous 
audience, secretaries, attaches, experts and all, amid the great 
confusion prevailing in the hall, participating. 

*'C'est decidee," (It is decided), declared Clemenceau, and the 
subject was changed. Soon the assemblage was dissolved. The 
whole transaction occupied onlj'^ a short time. 

Here was a covenant involving the fate of the world, affecting 
the destiny of every nation, large or small, there represented. Yet 
the whole thing was jammed through without the slightest sem- 
blance of that deliberation and debate which in this country we 
have learned, in the school of republican institutions, to under- 
stand as an essential preliminary to public decisions. It was put 
over with as little regard for the real opinion of the world, even 
as represented in that body, as a delegate slate in a Tammany 
caucus in the darkest days of strong arm methods in municipal 
politics. 

What wonder that President Wilson has chafed because of the 
disposition of a legislative body in the United States to actually 
debate this matter! Why should there be surprise that so many 
of President Wilson's followers have been indignant because there 
has been free discussion of this fundamental matter in the forum 
of the Senate and in the larger forum of public opinion ? 

Thank God there is one country in the world where the people 
do discuss and have some hand in deciding questions affecting the 
national destiny! 

Judged by our experience in connection with the adoption of 
the league of nations covenant there is not another country in the 
world where the great body of the people have taken the slightest 
interest in the moral or economic or political issues involved in 
the most important proposal affecting the world's future that has 
ever been presented. 

In Europe the masses of the people have been content to accept 
what was handed down to them by authority from on high. 

But here, public decisions are handed, not down from thrones 
and palaces, but up from the hearts and minds of the millions. 

This is genuine democracy. No nation in which there has not 
been general debate upon this matter among the people is a democ- 
racy, because it is lacking in the very fundamentals of real popular 
government. 

The most encouraging sign of the times, the surest guarantee 
of the beneficence and the permanency of American institutions, 
is that this great question, over the protest of those who are pos- 

126 



AiMERICANISM 

sessed by European conceptions of government, has been discussed 
thoroughly and intelligently and courageously in the Senate of the 
United States and by the great body of the people; that in the 
streets and the stores, in the trains and in the offices, in the shops 
and the mills, on the farms and in the pulpits and the school 
houses, this great issue has been debated. The tide of public opin- 
ion, as this great debate has proceeded, has risen higher and higher 
against the sacrifice of Ameiican ideals and interests involved in 
the acceptance of the covenant without reservations and amend- 
ments. 

The deliberative democracy of America still lives and rules. And 
it is the world's one hope of a better political and economic and 
social order, because this is the one government, as demonstrated 
by the great test just given, where there actually is 

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people." 
—October 18, 1919. 

ICZIOEZDl 



I shall stand by the Union, and by all who stand by it. I shall 
do justice to the whole country, according to the best of my abil- 
ity, in all I say, and act for the good of the whole countiy in all 
I do. I mean to stand upon the Constitution. I need no other 
platform. I shall know but one country. The ends I aim at shall 
be my country's, my God's and truth's. I was born an American ; 
I live an American; I shall die an American; and I intend to per- 
form the duties incumbent upon me in that character to the end 
of my career. I mean to do this, with absolute disregaid of per- 
sonal consequences. What are personal consequences? What is 
the individual man, with all the good or evil that may betide him, 
in comparison with the good or evil which may befall a great 
country in a crisis like this, and in the midst of great transactions 
which concern that country's fate ? Let the consequences be what 
they will, I am careless. No man can suffer too much, and no 
man can fall too soon, if he suffer, or if he fall, in defense of the 
liberties and Constitution of his country. — Daniel Webster. 

On this auspicious occasion we may well renew the pledge of 
our devotion to the Constitution, which, launched by the founders 
of the republic and consecrated by their prayers and patriotic' devo- 
tion, has for almost a century borne the hopes and the aspirations 
of a great people through prosperity and peace and through the 
shock of foreign conflicts and the perils of domestic strife and 
vicissitudes. — Grover Cleveland. 

We want a man who standing on a mountain height sees all the 
achievement of our past history and carries in his heart the mem- 
ory of all its glorious deeds and who looking forward prepares to 
meet the labor and dangers to come. — James A. Garfield. 

127 



AMERICANISM 

Hail, Columbia! happy land! 
Hail, ye heroes! heaven-born band! 

Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, 

Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, 
And when the storm of war was gone, 
Enjoyed the peace your valor won. 

Let independence be our boast. 

Ever mindful what it cost; 

Ever grateful for the prize, 

Let its altar reach the skies. 

Firm, united, let us be. 
Rallying round our liberty; 
As a band of brothers joined, 
Peace and safety we shall find. 

Immortal patriots! rise once more: 

Defend your rights, defend your shore: 
Let no rude foe, with impious hand. 
Let no rude foe, with impious hand. 

Invade the shrine where sacred lies 

Of toil and blood the well-earned prize. 
While offering peace sincere and just, 
In Heaven we place a manly trust 
That truth and justice v/ill prevail, 
And every scheme of bondage fail. 

Sound, sound, the trump of Fame! 
Let Washington's great name 

Ring through tlie world with loud applause. 

Ring through the world with loud applause; 
Let every clime to Freedom dear, 
Listen with a joyful ear. 

With equal skill, and godlike power, 

He governed in the fearful hour 

Of horrid war; or guides, with ease. 

The happier times of honest peace. 

Firm, united, let us be. 
Rallying round our liberty; 
As a band of brothers joined. 
Peace and safety we shall find. 

— Joseph Hopkinson. 

The Constitution is a sacred instrument; and a sacred trust is 
given to us to see to it that its preservation in all its virtue and 
its vigor is passed on to the generations vet to come. — William 
McKinley. 

128 



SHALL WE BE A PATCH IN EUROPE'S 
CRAZY QUILT? 

It is stated that in one New England town the result of an elec- 
tion held last week was determined by the vote of Italians who 
were dissatisfied with the decision of the peace conference on the 
Fiume question, and who took this opportunity to express their 
I'esentment by voting- against the Democratic candidates. 

This is only faintly suggestive of the results sure to follow, in 
domestic politics, our entanglement in the affairs of Europe. Kvery 
Tiation in Europe is represented in our population, Europe is a 
crazy quilt of national and racial antagonisms and rivalries from 
tlie effects of which we here in this country have hitherto been 
free. It is a remarkable fact that in this countiy we have taken 
all the warring elements of Eui'ope and fused them into a fairly 
homogeneous whole; a more homogeneous whole than is to be 
found in any one European country, for the theory of separatism 
is there so strongly intrenched that there are dialects even for 
mere neighborhoods in many of these nations. 

The relations of nations and the domestic politics of these Euro- 
pean countries are based upon the racial, religious and economic 
group antagonisms we in this country have managed to eliminate 
as controlling phases of political action. Our great political par- 
ties in this country have united men of many faiths, occupations 
and racial origins. In the European nations these groups ai'e 
arrayed in political organizations, against one another. It is a 
sort of tong or feud system, from which we in this country had 
been emancipated. The big movement to Europeanize the United 
States has brought with it the attempt to base our politics upon 
the group system; to divide it into a number of voting bodies, 
each representing a special interest and considering itself at war 
with all other elements. It is this Europeanization of our politics 
and industry, with the intioduction of the caste and class spiiit on 
the European m.odel, and the passionate antagonisms which accom- 
pany their conflicts, that has most of all seemed to be leading us 
awaj'' from the old America vre had learned to love as som.ething 
different than the world had ever before experienced, a realization 
of the true spirit of democracy in v/hich men connect them.selves 
with party organizations or other political movements solely on 
the basis of the general good. 

Europeanisra is fundamentally race, class, group, caste con- 

129 



AMERICANISM 

sciousness rising above national or people-consciousness. Ameri- 
canism is fundamentally national or people-consciousness rising 
above race, class, group, caste loyalty. At one end of European- 
ism is the autocracy of the aristocracy. At the other is the autoc- 
racy of the proletariat. From one of these extremes Europe is 
rushing to the other, and threatening to engulf the world in the 
attendant disaster. Americanism is at war with both these funda- 
mental manifestations of Europeanism. That is to say, it always 
has been, but today America is menaced by the movement, strong- 
ly championed, to substitute the European for the American 
system. 

What should have been attempted at t]ie peace conference was 
the Americanization of Europe, rather than the Europeanization 
of America. For America has taught Europe that the caste and 
class and group interest system are inconsistent with true democ- 
racy and are "rotten survivals of by-gone circumstances." Amer- 
ica has also taught Europe that it is unnecessary to have a nation 
for every racial group; that these groups can be fused, and will 
fuse if they are permitted to do so. But Europe has been Balkan- 
ized at the peace conference, not Americanized. It has been fur- 
ther divided, not federated. Any intelligent program for world 
peace, lifted above the level of sordid self-interest on the part of 
the European nations, or futile idealism on the part of our spokes- 
man, would have resulted in the federation of European peoples, 
rather than the creation of a dozen new states similar to the little 
Balkan pov/ers, each with the seed of war in it because of its eco- 
nomic and territorial insufficiency, and the bitterness of the racial, 
religious and dynastic hatred the creation of these new govern- 
m.ents intensifies. The creation of a United States of Europe, 
with each of the twenty or thirty little states made independent 
by the treaty as one commonwealth in a great federated republic, 
would have done far more to preserve the peace of the world than 
any league of nations, based upon the perpetuation of the old order. 

But the basing of politics upon the demands of racial, religious 
and class groups is an evil certain to bring to America new per- 
plexities, embarrassments and dangers. Entangled in the affairs 
of Europe, we encourage every European power, with interests at 
stake in the new world government, to cultivate, primarily through 
its own nationals in the United States, influence in American poli- 
tics. With the United States concerned in every decision afi:ect- 
ing these age-old hatreds, jealousies, rivalries and ambitions of 
Europe, we will have as many groups contending for dominance 
in our national affairs as we have nationalities represented in the 
United States. The new hyphenism will be vastly more perilous 
than any we have hitherto Imown. This election result in New 
England is a suggestion of what will happen. The Irish question, 
the Fiume question, and a hundred other international questions 
arising under the operations of the new world government, will 

130 



AMERICANISM 

divide our people in campaign periods to the exclusion of domestic 
matters which so much need the attention of the people, entirely- 
free from influences arising out of the European mess the millions 
who have come here from the Old World thought they had turned 
their backs on forever. 

How unfortunate that after more than a century of successful 
experience as an independent nation, with a wide ocean rolling 
between each of our coasts and the older worlds with all their 
heritage of hatred and bloodshed, poverty and oppression, we have 
developed in this country so powerful a faction that would Euro- 
peanize the United States, and turn back the prow of the May- 
flower and of all the pilgrim ships that have succeeded it, to the 
conditions many generations of emigrants left the older lands to 
escape. 

How much to be deplored it is that Old World books and Old 
World associations and Old World propaganda have blinded the 
eyes of so many Americans to the very meaning of America. 

Here we have fused all the Old World elements into a united 
people, at peace with themselves and v.'ith the world until we were 
drawn into the vortex of a war growing out of the European sys- 
tem into which v/e are now asked to permanently involve our 
country. 

God knows we have problems enough of our ov/n, many of v/hich 
are unsolved, and that there never vras a time in oui' history when 
it was so important that we Americans should devote ourselves 
whole-heartedly and single-mindedly to the working out of the 
destiny to which America was dedicated by the fathers. 

The task of pacifying Europe is absolutely hopeless so long as 
Europe clings to the system of separateness and aloofness instead 
of turning to the solution of federated republicanism, presented 
by this nation as a guide to the goal of peace and unity among 
peoples. And the problem of keeping the peace within our own 
country is going to be a serious, and maybe an impossible one, if 
we continue to Europeanize our politics under the leadership of 
men who seem blind to what this republic w^as founded for and 
what it stands for; if we divide, in this country, as they have in 
Europe, along racial, religious, class and caste lines, and make of 
our politics only a sort of civil war with elements and combinations 
of elements, warring on one another as, under the influence of the 
new order, they are now beginning to do. 

The Republican party should make the fight for single track, 
single allegiance, single thought, single heart Americanism. 

We are being led down the pathway of internationalism to the 
bottomless pits of European conflict, intrigue and travail. 

It is for the Republican party, which was born to save the na- 
tion, and which brought it to the highest pinnacle of prosperity 
and power and true democracy ever attained by a people in all the 
history of mankind, to rescue this republic from the danger to 

131 



AMERICANISM 

which it is now exposed by those whose alien sympathies and 
ideals would make of this country only one more patch in the 
political and social crazy quilt of Europe. 
—October 25, 1919. 



dUOEZD 



When Freedom from her mountain height, 
Unfurled her standard to the air, 
She tore the azure robe of night. 
And set the stars of glory there. 
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes 
The milky baldric of the skies. 
And striped its pure, celestial white, 
With streakings of the morning light ; 
Then from his mansion in the sun 
She called her eagle-bearer down, 
And gave into his mighty hand 
The symbol of her chosen land. 

Majestic monarch of the cloud. 
Who rear'st aloft thy regal form, 
To hear the tempest-trumpings loud. 
And see the lightning lances driven, 
When strive the warriors of the storm. 
And rolls the thunder drum of heaven. 
Child of the sun! to thee 'tis given 
To guard the banner of the free. 
To hover in the sulphur smoke, 
To ward away the battle stroke. 
And bid its blendings shine afar. 
Like i-ainbows on the cloud of war, 
The harbingers of victory! 

Flag of the free heart's hope and home! 

By angel hands to valor given; 
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, 

And all thy hues were born in heaven. 
And fixed as yonder orb divine. 

That saw thy bannered blaze unfurled, 
Shall thy proud stars resplendent shine. 

The guard and glory of the world. 
Forever float that standard sheet! 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us. 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet. 

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us ? 

— Joseph Rodman Drake. 



132 



AN AMERICANIZED COVENANT 

The Senate of the United States v/iil perform its full duty in the 
matter of Americanizing the league of nations covenant. In the 
face of malicious misrepresentation and violent assault the Senate 
majority has proceeded calmly with a great debate on the treaty, 
which is now followed by votes on effective reservations ensuring 
to the American people full protection of the rights, interests and 
ideals of their republic. 

The battle for the Americanization of the league of nations 
compact has been fought v/ith great courage and ability, against 
all the pressure it has been possible for the national administra- 
tion to bring to bear through its agents in the Senate, its party 
organization throughout the country and all the vast agencies for 
the control of public opinion at its command. 

The National Republican began the battle for the Americaniza- 
tion of the covenant as soon as the provisions of the compact were 
made known. There was a time when there was some justification 
for the belief that this struggle was against the preponderance of 
public opinion. But this paper has an abiding faith in the ulti- 
mate judgment of the American people, and has never for a mo- 
ment lost faith that the ultimate demand of public sentiment would 
be for drastic changes in the treaty. 

The debate in the Senate has been one of the greatest, if not the 
greatest, in the entire history of Congress. This discussion, fol- 
lowed throughout the country by press and public, has served to 
bring public sentiment to the support of those who have from the 
beginning demanded that the Senate of the United States should 
perform its constitutional duty by so revising the league of nations 
covenant as to make it compatible with American traditions and 
American institutions. 

The attempt of President Wilson to ignore and even defy the 
Senate in the exercise of its lawful prerogatives, has miserably 
failed. The attempt to force the covenant through the Senate as 
a rider to the peace treaty on the theory that the coordinate treaty 
making branch of government must either accept or reject the 
covenant in toto has broken down. The Senate has not been 
bluffed or bullied. It has done far more than merely to make 
changes in the treaty essential to the protection of American 
rights, interests and ideals. It has asserted anew the independ- 
ence and self respect and lawful authority of the legislative repre- 
sentatives of the people of the United States, which i-ubber-stamp 

133 



AMERICANISIM 

representatives and weak-kneed adversaries of the administration 
were ready to sacrifice. It is not probable that any other Presi- 
dent, in the light of this precedent, will proceed upon the theory 
that the whole treaty making power of the American government 
is vested in the one individual who for the time being happens to 
occupy the presidency, or that it will be possible for any executive 
to bargain away his country's welfare without being called to ac- 
count by the people of the United States and their representatives 
in the legislative branch of government. 
—November 15, 1919. 



CZZIOEID 



No other people have a goveinment moi-e worthy of their respect 
and love, or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look 
upon, and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor, 
God has placed upon our head a diadem, and has laid at our feet 
power and wealth beyond definition or calculation. But we must 
not forget that we take these gifts upon the condition that justice 
and mercy shall hold the reins of power, and that the upward 
avenues of hope shall be free for all the people. 

I do not mistrust the future. Dangers have been in frequent 
ambush along our path, but we have uncovered and vanquished 
them all. Passion has swept some of our communities, but only to 
give us a new demonstration that the great body of our people 
are stable, patriotic and law-abiding. No political party can long 
pursue advantage at the expense of public honor, or by rude and 
indecent methods, without protest and fatal disaftection in its own 
body. The peaceful agencies of commerce are more fully revealing 
the necessary unity of all our communities, and the increasing 
intercourse of our people is promoting mutual respect. We shall 
find unalloyed pleasure in the revelation which our census will 
make of the swift development of the great contributions of the 
states. Each state will bring its geneious contributions to the 
great aggregate of the nation's increase. And when the harvests 
from the fields, the cattle from the hills and the ores from the 
earth, shall have been weighed, counted and valued, we Vv^ll turn 
from all to crown with the highest honor the state that has most 
promoted education, virtue, justice and patriotism among its peo- 
ple. — Benjamin Harrison. 

To all our means of culture is added that powerful incentive to 
personal ambition which spi'ings from the genius of our govern- 
ment. The pathway to honorable distinction lies open to all. No 
post of honor so high but the poorest boy may hope to reach it. 
It is the pride of every American, that many cherished names, at 
whose mention our hearts beat with a quicker bound, were worn 
by the sons of poverty, who conquered obscurity and became fixed 
stars in our firmament. — James A. Garfield. 

134 



PRESIDENT WILSON TxiKES FULL 
RESPONSIBILITY 

The responsibility for the defeat of the peace treaty, as for the 
many months of delay in securing action upon it, rests squarely 
upon President Wilson. 

The President's letter to Senator Hitchcock, ordering the admin- 
istration senators to vote against the treaty with the Lodge reser- 
vations effecting its Americanization, was the death warrant of 
the document. It served notice on the Senate, the country and the 
world, that President Wilson did not propose to accept any treaty 
or covenant in the formulation of which the Senate had played its 
constitutional part, or in which reservations had been inserted 
protective of American rights, interests and ideals. 

From the beginning President Wilson has displayed this irrecon- 
cilable and intolerant attitude. He boasted that he v/ould not per- 
mit the Senate to pass upon a treaty of peace without at the same 
time either accepting or rejecting in toto the plan for a world 
constitution perfected at Paris. He ordered the administration 
senators to resist all amendments or reservations. He refused to 
permit any program of compi'omise or conciliation. He would 
have the treaty and covenant without the dotting of an "i" or the 
crossing of a "t" or he would not have it at all. 

The criticism of the covenant was that it sacrificed American 
rights and interests and involved this country in responsibilities 
and dangers out of proportion to the promised benefits. The 
answer to this criticism was that the dangers alleged to lurk in 
the covenant were imaginary. The reservations proposed by Sena- 
tor Lodge and his associates gave to the treaty in letter the inter- 
pretation its proponents claimed was the real meaning of the docu- 
ment. And when these reservations had been included the docu- 
ment was no longer acceptable to President Wilson.. 

In viev/ of the fact that President V/ilson and his senators will 
not accept an Americanized covenant, the people of this countiy 
will be glad, as an alternative, to accept no entanglement with 
Europe at all. Congress should pass a resolution declaring the 
war at an end, and make an end of the business. The purpose of 
President Wilson has been to make of the matter a personal and 
political issue contributory to the fortunes of himself and his 
party organization. He has evidently decided to accept the re- 
sponsibility of killing the treaty and covenant in order that a cara- 

135 



AMERICANISM 

paio-n issue mav be made of this international problem. That being 
his'choice the 'Republican party stands ready to meet him upon 
the issue of America First. 
—November 22, 1919. 



CZZIOEZD 



If anything be found in the national Constitution, either by 
original provision or subsequent interpretation, which ought not 
to be in it, the people know how to get rid of it. If any construc- 
tion unacceptable to them be established, so as to become prac- 
tically a part of the Constitution, they will amend it at their own 
sovereign pleasure. Gentlemen do not seem to recollect that the 
people have any power to do anything for themselves. The people 
have not trusted their safety in regard to the general Constitution 
to other hands. They have required other security, and taken 
other bonds. They have chosen to trust themselves, first, to the 
plain words of the instrument, and to such construction as the 
government themselves, in doubtful cases, should put on their own 
powers, under their oaths of office, and subject to their responsi- 
bility to them; just as the people of a state trust their own state 
governments with a similar power. Secondly, they have reposed 
their trust in the efficacy of frequent elections, and in their own 
power to remove their own servants and agents whenever they 
see cause. Thirdly, they have reposed trust in the judicial power, 
which, in order that it might be trustM^orthy, they have made as 
respectable, as disinterested and as independent as was practicable. 
Fourthly, they have seen fit to rely, in case of necessity or high 
expediency, on their known and admitted power to alter or amend 
tiie Constitution, peaceably and quietly, whenever experience shall 
point out defects or imperfections. * * * 

If the people in these respects had done otherwise than they 
have done, their Constitution could neither have been preserved, 
nor would it have been worth preserving. And if its plain pro- 
visions shall now be disregarded, and these new doctrines inter- 
polated in it, it will become as feeble and helpless a being as its 
enemies, whether early or more recent, could possibly desire. 

But although there are fears, there are hopes also. The people 
have preserved this, their own chosen Constitution, for forty 
vears, and have seen their happiness, prosperity and renown grow 
with its growth, and strengthen with its strength. They are now, 
generally, strongly attached to it. Overthrown by direct assault 
ft cannot be; evaded, undermined, nullified, it will not be, if we 
and those who shall succeed us here as agents and representa- 
tives of the people shall conscientiously and vigilantly discharge 
the two great branches of our public trust, faithful to preserve 
and wisely to administer it.— Daniel Webster. 



136 



THE PEOPLE'S THANKS ARE DUE THE 
AMERICAN SENATE 

The expedition with which the Senate, debate concluded, passed 
the Lodge reservations Americanizing the covenant of the league 
of nations, seems to have stunned those who have been, up to 
this time, deceived by the campaign of misrepresentation carried 
on in behalf of the administration. The people of this countiy, 
and the world in general, have been assured that opposition to 
the President's program in the Senate was merely a game of party 
politics; that in the end, after much loud talk, the Senate would 
swallow the covenant whole, just as it was brought home from 
Paris. There has, of course, never been any justification for such 
statements. This paper has been able to inform its I'eaders for 
many weeks that just what has happened in the Senate would 
happen; that the Senate would either Americanize the treaty, or 
reject it. 

Now those who have been accusing the Senate of a mere desire 
to "play politics" with the situation, and after "grand-standing" 
for a season give in to the administration, are loudly crying that 
the Senate has "cut the heart from the covenant." It has been 
claimed by the senators opposing the adoption of the covenant 
without change that it contained certain provisions and implica- 
tions which menaced American rights, interests and ideals. The 
President and his friends have replied that these dangers did not 
lurk in the treaty, but that they had been I'ead into it by the Pres- 
ident's critics. But now the Senate has proceeded to incorporate 
into the treaty reservations making impossible such an interpre- 
tation of the treaty as its friends say would be unjustified, the 
administration's press agents insist that the covenant has been 
ruined, and that it would be rejected by the other signatory pow- 
ers. Thus they confess publicly that they have been trying to 
deceive the American people as to the true inwardness of the 
treaty. 

Imperialist newspapers in Paris and London still cling to the 
stupid theory that opposition to President Wilson's program as it 
was brought home from Paris is based merely upon partisan and 
personal prejudice. The trouble with these publications is that 
they have been content to feed themselves on administration 
propaganda without letting any real knowledge of the situation 
interfere with their preconceived notions. The truth is that this 

137 



AMERICANISM 

is the only country in the world in which the covenant of the 
league of nations as concocted at Paris, has been considered, de- 
bated and passed on upon its merits. In France, England and 
other European countries, it has simply been accepted on author- 
ity. 

It was reasonable to assume that the statesmen of Europe knew 
something of the Constitution of the United States when they 
proceeded upon the theory that Mr. Wilson had the right to con- 
stitute himself the sole and final arbiter of American purposes 
in the peace conference at Paris. If these statesmen knew that 
the Senate of the United States had anything to do with the mak- 
ing of international contracts, they chose to igT.ore the provisions 
of the American Constitution, even after m.ore than one-third of 
the members of the Senate, a sufficient number to defeat any 
treaty, had served written notice on them that the constitution of 
the league of nations in "its present form" should not be accepted 
by the United States and urging that a peace treaty v/ith Germany 
be at once concluded and the subject of a league of nations be left 
for more deliberate determination. In this course the representa- 
tives of European government gave deliberate affront to a ma- 
jority of the members of a coordinate treaty m.aking branch of the 
United States government, and also to the majority sentiment of 
the American people. 

Tlie American people and the American government have not 
broken faith vvith Europe. They never gave President Wilson 
carte blanche to commit them to any proposition his personal judg- 
ment might favor in the matter of a vvorld constitution. It has 
not been the practice in the United States to permit constitutions 
to be framed by the mere ukase of an executive. A matter of this 
kind may be settled in Japan by a decree of the Mikado, but there 
are a few other prelim.inaries in the United States of America, 
despite the activities of our home-grov^n monarchists against the 
traditions and institutions and laws of this republic. 

The Senate of the United States has performed a service of im- 
measurable value to the people of the United States in its coura- 
geous and effective fight in behalf of its own constitutional pre- 
rogatives, and in behalf of the rights, interests and ideals of the 
American people. It may reasonably be assumed that never again 
in the history of the republic will a chief executive attempt to 
establish the novel and unconstitutional doctrine that it is v/ithin 
tlie power of the one man who at the time being happens to be the 
chief executive of the nation, to sign, seal and deliver a contract 
involving the sovereignty and the independence, the rights and 
the interests of the whole American people. Such an effort must 
hereafter, as it has on this occasion, result in the defeat and liumil- 
iation of the President who Vv'ould so far forget his limitations as 
to undertake this autocratic abuse of povv^er. 

The Senate has Americanized the covenant of the league of na- 

138 



AMERICANISM 

tions. It may be within the power of the President to stand in 
the way of the signing of a treaty of peace on the ground that he 
will join in no treaty in the formulation of which the Senate of 
the United States has participated. He cannot, however, prevent 
the declaration of a state of peace by the Congress of the United 
States. Peace would have come to the world early in the present 
year if it had not been for the stubborn insistence of President 
Wilson upon the incorporation in the peace treaty of the covenant 
of the league of nations in order that the Senate might be coerced 
into its acceptance. The administration responsible for so much 
delay in the conclusion of the v/ar cannot well aiford to assume 
still further responsibility by further delaying the ratification of 
the treaty. 
—November 22, 1919. 

fcmoEZDl 



The one effective move for obtaining peace is by an agreement 
among the great powers, in which each should pledge itself not 
only to abide by the decisions of a common tribunal, but to back 
its decisions with force. The great civilized nations should com- 
bine by solemn agreement in a great world league for the peace of 
I'ighteousness. A coui't should be created — a changed and ampli- 
fied Hague court would meet the requirements — composed of rep- 
resentatives from each nation, these representatives being sworn 
to act as judges in each case, and not in a representative capacity. 

* * * The nations should agree on certain rights that should not be 
questioned, such as territorial integrity, their right to deal with 
their ov/n domestic affairs and with such matters as whom or 
whom not they should admit to citizenship. All should guarantee 
each of their number in possession of these rights. All should 
agree that other matters at issue betv/een any of them, or between 
any of them and any one of a number of specified outside civilized 
nations, should be submitted to the court as above constituted. 

* * * Each nation should absolutely I'eserve to itself its right to 
establish its own tariff and general economic policy, and to control 
such vital questions as immigration and citizenship. * * * Let us 
explicitly reserve certain rights — to our territorial possessions, to 
our control of immigration and citizenship, to our fiscal policy and 
to our handling of our domestic problems generally — as not to be 
questioned and not to be brought before any international tribunal. 

As regards impotent or disorderly nations or peoples outside 
the league, let us be very cautious about guaranteeing to interfere 
with or on behalf of them, where they lie wholly outside our sphere 
of interest; and let us announce that our ovv'n sphere of special 
concern in America (perhaps limited north or somewhere near 
the equator) is not to be infringed on by European or Asiatic 
powers. 

Moreover, let us absolutely decline any disarmament proposition 

139 



AMERICANISM 

that would leave us helpless to defend ourselves. Let us abso- 
lutely refuse to abolish nationahsm; on the contrary, let us base 
a wise and practical interaationalism on a sound and intense na- 
tionalism. ■••• * '-^ When all this has been done, let us with deep 
seriousness ponder every promise we make, so as to be sure that 
our people will fulfill it. * * * Let us go into such a league. But let 
us weigh well what we promise, and then train ourselves in body 
and soul to keep our promises. Let us treat the formation of the 
league as an addition to but in no sense as a substitute for prepar- 
ing our own strength for our own defense. And let us build a genu- 
ine internationalism — that is, a genuine and generous regard for 
the rights of others — on the only healthy basis — a sound and 
intense development of the broadest spirit of American national- 
ism. — Theodore Roosevelt. 



"0 Beautiful, mj^ country!" 

Be thine a nobler care. 
Than all thy wealth of commerce, 

Thy harvest v/aving fair; 
Be it thy pride to lift up 

The manhood of the poor; 
Be thou to the oppressed 

Fair freedom's open door. 

Foi- thee our fathers suffered, 

For thee they toiled and prayed; 
Upon thy holy altar 

Their willing lives they laid. 
Thou hast no common birthright; 

Grand memories on thee shine. 
The blood of pilgrim nations. 

Commingled, flows in thine. 

beautiful, our country! 

Round thee in love we dravr; 
Thine is the grace of freedom, 

The majesty of law. 
Be righteousness thy scepter, 

Justice thy diadem ; 
And on thy shining forehead 

Be peace the crowning gem. 

— Frederick L. Hosmer 



All free governments, whatever their name, are in reality gov- 
ernments by public opinion; and it is on the quality of this opinion 
that their prosperity depends. — James Russell Lowell. 

140 



AMERICA FIRST! NOW AND FOREVER! 

Frequently we hear talk of what "we" the American people, 
owe this, that or the other country, and the world in general. 

The American people are not the debtors of the world or of 
any nation in it; the world owes us. 

The world owes America because this country for a century and 
a third has given to the world a working model of popular govern- 
ment, which, if it had been adopted by other nations, would have 
spared them the necessity of fighting the great war we have just 
concluded, and many another war beside. 

The world owes America because we have welcomed to this coun- 
try millions of the poverty stricken people of other lands, and 
given them here a home and country they could call their own; 
and America has divided, with generous hand, its wealth wdth 
their poverty; it has fused all these alien, discordant elements 
into a homogeneous whole, furnishing to Europe evidence that 
the racial and national differences which have kept that continent 
at war or preparing for war for a century, can be composed and 
peace be brought to the world, through the mere emulation of our 
national example. 

The world owes America because this is the one powerful nation 
in the v/orld that has not used its strength to rob or oppress its 
neighbors or distant peoples, and that has not been looking with 
jealous and designing eyes upon the property and territory of 
other nations. 

The world ov/es America because it went into the great World 
war at a time when the strength of this country was necessary to 
prevent a great combination of military powers from setting up a 
world empire on the ruins of other nations, and because America 
poured out her blood and treasure without limit until the tide of 
conquest had been stopped and turned back. 

The world owes America because for all this, at a time when 
other nations were dividing up the rich spoils of victory, this coun- 
try asked nothing, in territory or indemnity ; asked nothing but a 
peace of justice and of right. 

Isn't it about time to cease talking about what America owes 
the rest of the world and begin to think a little bit about what 
America owes herself? 

We think so. We think that is the thought of most of the 
American people. We believe they believe that the problems 
which confront us are big enough to tax our strength in their solu- 

141 



AMERICANISM 

tion. We think they thmk that it is time to quit chasing trans- 
oceanic rainbows and begin to pay close attention to the chores 
that need to be done right here on the old place. 

Lloyd George has not been afraid to say recently that England's 
first thought now must be of England, whose very self preserva- 
tion is at stake in these anxious days. Clem.enceau does not hesi- 
tate to say his first tliought is of France. We know what is first 
in the thought of Italy and Japan. We, too, must think of our 
own country first ; not in the sense of antagonism to other coun- 
tries. — with friendship for all, — but with first interest in our own. 

While the thought of some of our leaders has been centered on 
European affairs and world destiny, things here in our own land 
have 'been drifting, — and drifting toward what? Not an hour 
should be lost in fixing the thought of our nation and our govern- 
ment exclusively upon the immediate needs of America. We are 
solicitous for the v/elfare of the world; yes. But vv^hat shall it 
profit us if we try to help the v/hole world and lose our own national 
existence through failure to meet and solve the great special prob- 
lems which involve the very existence of our civilization? 

The debt Americans owe the rest of the world is an imaginary 
debt. If we owed such a debt we would gain the curses and not 
the blessings of the world by thrusting ourselves into the political 
control of their affairs, and involving them in the ordering of our 
national business. 

The debt Americans ov'^'e America is a real obligation. The dis- 
charge of that debt to the great republic, born of the dreams and 
maintained by the sacrifices of our fathers, is the first duty of 
Americans. 

America First. America Always First. America not above, but 
)t)efore, all. Now and Forevermore. Amen. 

—November 29, 1919. 

fcznoiUDl 



Venerable Men ! you have come down to us from a former gener- 
ation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that 
vou might behold this joyous day. You are now where you stood 
fifty years ago, this very hour, with your brothers and your neigh- 
l>ors, shoulder to shoulder, in the strife for your country. Behold, 
how altered ! The sam.e heavens are indeed over your heads ; the 
same ocean rolls at your feet; but all else, how changed! You 
hear now no roar of hostile cannon, you see no mixed volumes of 
smoke and flame rising from burning Charlestown. The ground 
strewed with the dead and dying; the impetuous charge; the 
steady and successful repulse; the loud call to repeated assault; 
the summoning of all that is manly to repeated resistance ; a thou- 
sand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in an instant to w^hatever 
of terror there may be in war and death, — all these you have wit- 
nessed, but you witness them no m.ore. All is peace ; and God has 

142 



AMERICANISM 

granted you the sight of your country's happiness, ere you slumber 
in the grave. He has allowed you to behold and to partake the 
reward of your patriotic toils; and he has allowed us, your sons 
and countrymen, to meet you here, and in the name of the present 
generation, in the name of your country, in the name of liberty, 
to thank you! 

But alas ! you are not all here ! Time and the sword have thinned 
your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, Read, Pomeroy, 
Bridge ! our eyes seek for you in vain amid this broken band. You 
are gathered to your fathers, and live only to your country in her 
grateful remembrance and your own bright example. 

But the scene amidst which vv^e stand does not permit us to con- 
fine our thoughts or our sympathies to those fearless spirits who 
hazarded or lost their lives on this consecrated spot. We have 
the happiness to rejoice here in the presence of a most worthy 
representation of the survivors of the whole Revolutionary army. 

Veterans! you are the remnant of many a well-fought field. 
You bring with you marks of honor from Trenton and Monmouth ; 
from Yorktown, Camden, Bennington and Saratoga. Veterans of 
half a century ! when in your youthful days you put everything at 
hazard in your country's cause, good as that cause was, and san- 
guine as youth is, still your fondest hopes did not stretch onward 
to an hour like this ! At a period to which you could not reasonably 
have expected to arrive, at a moment of national prosperity such 
as you could never have foreseen, you are now met here to enjoy 
the fellowship of old soldiers, and to receive the overflowings of a 
universal gratitude. 

May the Father of all mercies smile upon your declining years, 
and bless them! And when you shall here have exchanged your 
embraces, when you shall once more have pressed the hands which 
have been so often extended to give succour in adversity, or 
grasped in the exultation of victory, then look abroad upon this 
lovely land which your young valor defended, and mark the hap- 
piness with which it is filled; yea, look abroad upon the whole 
earth, and see what a name you have contributed to give to your 
country, and v/hat a praise you have added to freedom, and then 
rejoice in the sympathy and gratitude which beam upon your last 
days from the improved condition of mankind! — Daniel Webster 
to the veterans of the Revolution on the 50th anniversary of the 
Battle of Bunker Hill. 

Let us then, with courage and confidence pursue our own federal 
and republican principles, our attachment to union and representa- 
tive government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean 
from the exterminating havoc of one-quarter of the globe; too 
high-minded to endure the degradations of the others ; possessing 
a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the 
hundredth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense 

143 



AMERICANISM 

of our equal rig'lit to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisi- 
tions of our own industiy, to honor and confidence from our fellow 
citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their 
sense of them ; enlig-htened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, 
and practiced in various forms, yet all of tliem inculcating honesty, 
truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man ; acknowledging 
and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensa- 
tions proves that it delights in the happiness of m.an here and 
his greater happiness hereafter — with all these blessings, what 
more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? — 
Thomas Jefferson. 

Though many and bright are the stars that appear 

In that flag, by our country unfurled — 
And the stripes that are swelling in majesty there 

Like a rainbow adorning the world — 
Their light is unsullied as those in the sky, 

By a deed that our fathers have done; 
And they'ie leagued in as true and as holy a tie 

In their motto of "Many in One." 

From the hour when those patriots fearlessly flung 

That banner of star-light abroad, 
Ever true to themselves to that banner they clung, 

As they clung to the promise of God; 
By the bayonet traced at the midnight of war. 

On the fields where our glory was won — 
Oh ! perish the heart or the hand that would mar 

Our motto of "Many in One." 

We are many in one while there glitters a star 

In the blue of the heavens above ; 
And tyrants shall quail, 'mid their dungeons afar, 

When they gaze on that motto of love. 
It shall gleam o'er the sea 'm.id the bolts of the storm — 

Over tempest, and battle, and wreck; 
And flame where our guns with their thunder grow warm, 

'Neath the blood on the slippery deck. 

Then up with the flag! Let it stream in the air 

Though our fathers are cold in their graves; 
They had hands that could strike, they had souls that could dare, 

To do and to die. Where it waves, 
The emblem of justice and freedom for all, 

Our millions shall rally around ; 
And a nation of freemen that moment shall fall 

When its stars shall be trailed on the ground. 

— George Washington Cutter. 

144 



KEYNOTE OF CAMPAIGN WILL BE 
"AMERICANISM" 

The keynote of the next Republican national platform will be 
found in the one word "Americanism." 

"Americanism" in the true sense means, to Americans, America 
always first; America, not above all, but before all, in the minds 
and hearts of those who profess allegiance to America. 

"Americanism" means first thought of the rights, interests and 
ideals of America. It does not mean enmity to other nations. It 
means recognition of the indisputable truth that as other nations 
and peoples look first after their own, so the American people 
should think first of the preservation of the heritage that has come 
down to them through the labors and sacrifices of the founders 
of this republic and the generations that have toiled and sacrificed 
that this nation might be the strongest and happiest of earth. 

"Americanism" means that America shall not, without some 
better reason for doing than has yet been advanced, bankrupt 
herself in order that some insolvent nation may be saved from 
financial disaster. "Americanism" means that the assets of this 
country shall not be traded for the liabilities of other countries to 
such an extent that America shall be dragged down to that level 
of life for the ordinary man which has for centuries prevailed in 
other lands. 

It is not necessary that America be wrecked to save other na- 
tions from economic disaster in order that the generosity of this 
nation shall be demonstrated. We have just emerged from a war 
in which the American people poured out their money by the 
billions and their soldiers by the millions to save civilization from 
disaster. The theory that such sacrifice only involves this nation 
in the obligation to take on the debt and disaster of all the rest 
of the world seems to be entertained only by a few theorists and 
doctrinaires, aml^itious for world fame, with their deluded dupes, 
and with interests not so well stocked with ideals, but heavily 
loaded with foreign securities and the ambition to take on more 
to their own profit, even if all this be done by the sacrifice of the 
rights and interests of their own country and countrymen. 

"Americanism" means, in short, a return to the well settled 
Clay so well called the "Am.erican system" of protection to Amer- 
ican manufactures, American agiiculture and American labor. It 
means first change in the American market for producers who 

145 



AMERICANISM 

live here, pay taxes here, build up this country through labor and 
investment, and upon whom rests the obligation to protect this 
country in time of war as well as support it in time of peace. It 
means the abandonment of a fiscal policy which robs the American 
treasury and throws heavier burdens on the American taxpayer in 
order that alien rather than domestic industrial interests may be 
fostered. 

"Americanism" means the protection of the lives and the prop- 
erty of American citizens abroad as well as at home. It means 
that to be an American citizen will again be as much of a protec- 
tion to those who yield allegiance to the American government, as 
it is to be a citizen of Great Britain or of any other great, self- 
respecting power. It will mean an end of the policy of treating 
American citizens, American rights and American interests with 
open contempt in any country on this or the other hemisphere. 

"Americanism" means the turning of the thought of American 
statesmanship to the problems that affect the homes of the Amer- 
ican people. It may not mean so much high-sounding talk about 
tranquilizing the world, but it will mean practical measures taken 
toward the restoration of domestic peace and order. We talk of 
settling the world's problems by subordinating the United States 
in a world parliament, when we seem to be unable to prevent the 
settlement of domestic industrial disputes by any method but that 
of civil war. 

"Americanism" means the preservation of an obedience to the 
American Constitution and form of government. It means an end 
of usui-pation of all functions of government by any one of the 
three coordinate branches of government. It means government 
by public opinion, and by the common counsel of the people's 
leadership. It means an end of opinionated autocracy. It means 
an end of thinking of public problems only in terms of votes. It 
means government of, by and for the people rather than by what- 
ever interests may be able to bring upon the government, for the 
time being, the heaviest political pressure or brandish under the 
noses of the people the biggest club and assail theii- ears with the 
most menacing threats. 

"Americanism" means, in short, a return to the well settled 
precedents and policies which made this nation the richest and 
the greatest and the happiest on earth long before the "new free- 
dom" was thought of. It means turning our backs upon European 
imperialism and European socialism. It means the re-establish- 
ment of the right of the American people to conduct their national 
affairs in their own way, with malice toward none and with friend- 
ship for all the governments of earth. 

Here at home it means resistance to the movement to transfer 
from Europe to America the idea of class division, class conscious- 
ness, class government and class war, or to introduce here as a 
factor in our politics the complex racial and national hatreds and 

146 



AMERICANISM 

rivalries of Europe. It means the perpetuation of the repubhc 
under which the government is the creature of the people, as op- 
posed to the effort to establish in its stead the socialist state under 
which the people are to be dependents and creatures of the govern- 
ment. 

"Americanism" means the return to the more economical and 
common sense methods of conducting the national government. 
It means an end of the system, introduced by the present national 
administration, whereby there are coming to be more office hold- 
ers supported by the people, than private citizens to support the 
job holders. 

"Americanism" means the establishment of those policies under 
which honest private enterprise is encouraged, rather than struck 
down; by which industry and ability, usefully employed, are re- 
garded, rather than penalized; whereby initiative and invention 
and exploration which add to the general wealth are honored 
rather than attacked. It means, too, that the government shall 
halt enterprise at the border line of selfish exploitation, and shall 
treat as criminal all conspiracies directed toward the oppression of 
the general public, by whomsoever hatched. 

"Americanism" means an end of government by fear, of the 
mjsuse of government for the control of public opinion either by 
threat or persuasion. It means that coercion of government or of 
the general public bj' the threat of anj'^ individual or combination 
of individuals to do the public injury shall cease. 

Involved in the next campaign will be the fundamental matter 
of the very cliaracter of cur government and the attitude of 
national administration tovvard it. Tlie very atmosphere of Wash- 
ington needs to be changed. The windows of public place must 
be thrown open and the fresh air of the old Americanism let in. To 
bring this about is the mission of national Republicanism in the 
next campaign. The people eagerly await the opportunity to put 
the seal of their approval upon this enterprise. 
—December 20, 1919. 



dZOEZD 



Friends, our task as Americans is to strive for social and indus- 
trial justice, achieved through the genuine rule of the people. This 
is our end, our purpose. The methods for achieving the end are 
merely expedients, to be finallj'' accepted or rejected according as 
actual experience shows that they work well or ill. But in our 
hearts we must have this lofty pui"pose, and we must strive for 
it in all earnestness and sincerity, or our work will come to 
nothing. * ''•' * 

The leader for the time being, whoever he may be, is but an 
instrument, to be used until broken and then to be cast aside ; and 
if he is v/Oi"th his salt, he will care no more when he is broken 
than a soldier cares when he is sent where his life is forfeit in 

1-17 



AMERICANISM 

order that the victory may be won. In the long fight for righteous- 
ness the watchword for all of us is, "Spend and be spent." It is of 
little matter whether any one man fails or succeeds ; but the cause 
shall not fail, for it is the cause of mankind. 

We, here in America, hold in our hands the hope of the world, 
the fate of the coming years, and shame and disgrace will be ours 
if in our eyes the light of high resolve is dimmed, if we trail in 
the dust the golden hopes of men. If on this new continent we 
merely build another country of great but unjustly divided mate- 
rial prosperity, we shall have done nothing ; and we shall do little 
if we merely set the greed of envy against the greed of arrogance, 
and thereby destroy the material well-being of all of us. To turn 
this government either into a government by a plutocracy or gov- 
ernment by a mob, would be to repeat on a larger scale the lament- 
able failures of the world that is dead. 

We stand against all tyranny, by the few or by the many. We 
stand for the rule of the many in the interest of all of us, for the 
i-ule of the many in a spirit of courage, of common sense, of high 
purpose; above all, in a spirit of kindly justice toward every man 
and every woman. We not merely admit, but insist, that there 
must be self-control on the part of the people, that they must 
keenly perceive their own duties as well as the rights of others; 
but we also insist that the people can do nothing unless they not 
merely have, but exercise to the full, their own rights. 

The worth of our great experiment depends upon its being in 
good faith an experiment — the first that has ever been tried — a 
true democracy on the scale of a continent ; on a scale as vast as 
that of the mightiest empires of the Old World. Surely this is a 
noble ideal, an ideal for which it is worth while to strive, an ideal 
for which at need it is worth while to sacrifice much ; for our ideal 
is the rule of all the people in a spirit of friendliest brotherhood 
toward each and every one of the people. — ^Theodore Roosevelt. 

There is no point in which an American, long absent from his 
country, wanders so widely from its sentiments as on the subject 
of its foreign affairs. We have a perfect horror at everything 
like connecting ourselves with the politics of Europe. It would 
indeed be advantageous to us to have neutral rights established 
on a broad gi'ound ; but no dependence can be placed in any Euro- 
pean coalition for that. — Thomas Jefferson. 

Freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection 
of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected — 
these principles form the bright constellation which has gone be- 
fore us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and 
reformation. — From the first inaugural address of Thomas Jeffer- 
son, March 4, 1801. 

148 



"ABIERICANISM" IS THE REPUBLICAN KEYNOTE 

The keynote of the Republican national campaign of 1920 is the 
single word "Americanism." 

Americanism means, not a race, nor a language, nor a mere 
area on the map, but a working program of government which has 
withstood the test of a century's practical experience, and has 
more to the welfare of mankind than any other plan for the regula- 
tion of human relations the world has yet devised. 

Americanism means the maintenance and further development 
of representative republican government as conceived by the 
founders of this nation and embodied in a written constitution, the 
most beneficent charter of ordered liberty ever evolevd by the 
hand and brain of man. 

The basic principle of that constitution is that governments 
exist for the service of men, not men for service of governments. 
The motto of the nation that constitution established and which 
it has safeguarded since 3.787 is "E Pluribus Unum," — out of many 
one, — out of many states, one nation, out of many races and 
tongues and religions, one people, out of all classes and conditions 
of men, one body politic, existing for the service of all and the 
oppression of none. 

Europeanism means separatism. It means a continent divided 
into a half hundred jealous, hostile, contending nationalities. Amer- 
icanism means the union, not the division, of peoples. American- 
ism means the unity of all the heterogeneous elements of Europe 
into the homogeneity of a single national allegiance. 

>;: * ;!; :;; ;;c 

The Republican party, under Lincoln, saved the Union. In so 
doing it saved this continent from Europeanization. Had secession 
triumphed, what is now the United States of America, the most 
powerful nation of earth, would have been two, three, five or more 
petty nations, glaring at one another across armed border lines, 
arrayed against one another by European intrigue, involved in 
European entanglements through the necessity of foreign alliances 
to maintain national integrity. 

Because each of the sectional nations thus created would have 
lacked economic independence, there would have been continual 
conflict among these new-world powers, or an armed neutrality 
such as Europe preserved before the V/orld wai-. Only because 
the calamity of disunion was averted by the Republican party in 
the years of its youth, we have preserved a united and peaceful 

149 



AMEPwICANISM 

America while Europe, diirinor all the years since Lincoln's day, 
has been constantly either in conflict or within the shadow of war. 
The European war iDegan, naturally, in the Balkans, where the 
doctrine of "self determination of peoples" has flov/ered in a half 
dozen little nationalities which became pawns in the great game 
the principal powers of Europe were playing. The two Balkan 
wars vv^ere curtain raisers for the big fight. They were prophetic 
to thoughtful men of what was to come. The World war has closed 
with the creation of a dozen more new small nations on the Balkan 
model, — a dozen more causes of war. Instead of giving to Europe 
that one hope of peace that would have come with larger federa- 
tion, v/e have de-federalized Europe. Under the leadership of men 
vv^ho are European in their conceptions of politics, the effort has 
been made, not to Amiericanize Europe, but to Europeanize A.mer- 
ica. Yet Americanism has meant unity and peace; Europeanism 
has meant division and v»'ar, and will continue to mean disunion 
and war. The very statesmen who have talked of world-wide 
peace as the harvest of the World war, have sown the seed of 
future wars thick in the soil of Europe and of Asia. 

Americanism means a classless, casteless repubhc. It stands 
opposed to the idea of boi'der lines of hostility between people and 
people, class and class. Americanism stands for the self-determin- 
ation of the individual, but for the unity of all the variant strains 
of European race and tongue in loyalty to one nation and one flag. 

This ideal no true, comprehending American would risk by in- 
volving the destiny of his republic with that of nations whose very 
being is imbedded in a conception of nationality our very nation- 
ality forswears. This conception of the scope and purpose of gov- 
ermiient the true, understanding American v/ould not yield up for 
American inclusion in a v/orld government dominated by nations 
fully resolved to maintain tlie European system of nationality. 

Americanism means the maintenance of the American Constitu- 
tion against the foes from within who would destroy it either in 
mass or piecemeal, or the enemies from without who would carry 
it down in the world chaos to v/hich Europe's system of warring 
nationalities, of contending caste and class, has led Europe and 
will lead us if we unreservedly cast in our lot with the proposed 
world government in which we are to play a subordinated part. 



Americanism means the preservation of the American standard 
of life for the masses of the people through the maintenance of 
American industry and agriculture on the basis of superiority to 
the standards of other lands. That program has made this repub- 
lic the Mecca of the European millions seeking a land of richer 
reward and broader opportunity for the toilers who are the social 

150 



AMERICANISM 

and economic mud-sills of older lands, and of lands to the south of 
the United States in this hemisphere, which have been fashioned 
after the European model. 

Americanism means that those who must be depended upon in 
time of war to protect and in time of peace to support this govern- 
ment, are entitled to the protection and support of the govern- 
ment, as compared with the peoples of other lands. Americanism 
means that the resources, the markets, the industrial opportuni- 
ties of the United States are first of all the possessions of the peo- 
ple of the United States, and that the welfare of the American 
employer and the American wage worker, who must pay the taxes 
and carry the rifles for America's support and protection should 
be the first, not the second or the last, thought of the makers and 
administrators of American laws. 

H: 4: # 4= ^>: 

Americanism means, as Lincoln declared in his first political 
announcement, the protection and development of American indus- 
tries and American resources. 

It means the development of an American merchant marine, not 
as a government charity, but as a business enterprise carried on 
by American initiative and enterprise. 

It means the holding of all the territoiy now beneath the Amer- 
ican flag not merely because of what that may mean to this nation 
commercially and from a naval and military standpoint, but be- 
cause of the blessings that flow from American government to all 
the peoples who yield allegiance to the American flag. 

It means the establishment of the authority of the national 
government in industrial relations rather than the dictatorship, 
real or attempted, of any one class or element in industry. It 
means turning the thought and effort of the American people 
away from European problems of which they know little, to the 
solution of home problems which heretofore they have so success- 
fully solved that this republic, through the mere power of success- 
ful example, has been the most powerful influence in world politics. 

Americanism means the restoration in practice as well as theory, 
of the three independent and coordinate branches of government 
established in the American Constitution. It means an end of 
executive dictatorship, real or attempted, and the resumption of 
orderly, constitutional government through the Congress and the 
executive, with their powers limited by the Constitution under its 
interpretation by the Supreme Court. 

It means a real return to "that simplicity and economy befitting 
a democratic government," as mentioned in the Democratic plat- 
forai of 1912 and never thought of by Democratic leadership since. 

Americanism means the abandonment of all the schemes of 
politicalized industiy, of state socialism, of either the Prussian- 
ized or Russianized scheme of the exaggerated state, under which 
citizenship is only a form of slavery to government. 

151 



AMERICANISM 

Americanism means a I'estoration, in public affairs, of the doc- 
trines and ideals of Washington, Lincoln, McKinley and Roosevelt. 

***** 

Upon this simple platform of Americanism the Republican party 
can confidently stand in the campaign near at hand. The issue 
involved is far more important than any mere detail of political or 
economic policy. 

Great national campaigTiS deal with fundamentals, and no ques- 
tion more fundamental in our national life has been raised since 
1860 than this question of whether America is to become a mere 
European annex, a patch in Europe's crazy quilt. 

In his determination to make the un-Am.ericanized covenant a 
campaign issue President Wilson has throv/n down the gage of 
l:>attle, and it again becomes the duty and the privilege of the 
Republican party to make the fight for American ideals of nation- 
ality. 

As the minute men at Lexington said: "The fight may as well 
start here." 
—March 6, 1920. 



cmoEiD 



The revolutions of time furnish no previous example of a na- 
tion shooting up to maturity and expanding into greatness, with 
the rapidity which has characterized the growth of the American 
people. It is pleasing and instructive to look backwards upon the 
days of our youth ; but in the continual and essential changes of a 
growing subject, the transactions of that early period would be 
soon obliterated from the memory, but for some periodical call of 
attention to aid the silent records of the historian. Such celebra- 
tions arouse and gratify the kindliest emotions of the bosom. They 
are faithful pledges of the respect we bear to the mernxory of our 
ancestors, and of the tenderness with which we cherish the rising 
generation. They introduce the sages and heroes of ages past to 
the notice and emulation of succeeding times; they are at once 
testimonials of our gratitude, and schools of virtue to our chil- 
dren. These sentiments are wise ; they are honorable ; they^ are 
virtuous; their cultivation is not merely innocent pleasure, it is 
incumbent duty. — John Quincy Adams. 

We shall feel more than ever the want of an efficient general gov- 
ernment to * * * connect the political views and interests of the 
several states under one head in such a manner as will effectually 
prevent them from forming separate, improper or indeed any con- 
nection with the European powers which can involve them in their 
political disputes. For our situation is such as makes it not only 
unnecessary, but extremely imprudent, for us to take a pai*t in 
their quarrels. — Washington to Jefferson, 1788. 

152 



SILENCE, NOT DESATE, HAS BEEN DISGRACEFUL 

Colonel William J. Bryan, speaking in New York on the evening 
of the day the treaty of Paris failed of ratification, said : 

"The debate on the treaty has been a disgrace." 

He added that the rules of the Senate should be changed to per- 
mit the ratification of a treaty by majority vote, and to shut off 
debate. 

Whether or not the debate on the treaty and league of nations 
covenant has been a "disgrace," and whether debate upon such 
questions should in future be prevented and ratification of treaties 
by a bare majority be provided for, depends upon the point of view. 

Naturally those who wanted the treaty and covenant swallowed 
just as it was brought home from Europe, with its sacrifice of 
American sovereignty, ideals, interests and independence, regret 
the debate and regi^et the inability of the administration senators, 
with a few additional votes, to put the unchanged compact over. 

To those who would thus have sacrificed American interests and 
ideals the debate in the Senate and throughout the country has 
been regrettable, because it has opened the eyes of the people to 
the perils of some of the provisions of the treaty, such as the Shan- 
tung clause approving the theft of a Chinese province by the 
Japanese empire, and Article X, of the league of nations covenant, 
providing that American blood and treasure should be pledged 
to the preservation of the national boundaries established in the 
Paris treaty. 

The position of Mr. Bryan in this matter has been especially 
discreditable. He gave approval to the imperialistic treaty and 
the un- Americanized covenant, by silence, until the Senate debate 
to which he objects had aroused public sentiment to the menace of 
American ideals, interests and independence involved in certain 
provisions of the treaty. Finally, at a Democratic party banquet. 
Colonel Bryan, on purely partisan grounds, urged Democrats to 
join in accepting provisions of the treaty which he admitted were 
objectionable from an American standpoint. 

Think of a politician too solicitous for the welfare of his party 
to protest against treaty provisions v/hich he now admits weie 
objectionable, to say a word while the debate on these matters 
was proceeding, but who now, while admitting that the protective 
reservations proposed were proper, denouiiices the Senate for hav- 
ing put up a fight against the attempted sacrifice of the highest 
and best interests of the American people! 

153 



AMERICANISM 

No, the Senate debate has not been disgraceful. It constitutes 
one of the most inspiring chapters in American legislative history. 
Colonel Bryan's silence at such a time WAS disgraceful to him. 

The failure of this scheme to subordinate the United States to 
the sovereignty of a super-state, controlled by European and Asi- 
atic powers, does not demonstrate any weakness in the constitu- 
tional provision for a two-thirds vote in the Senate as an essential 
of treaty ratification. On the contrary it proves anew the wisdom 
of the founders of our nation in declining to make it possible for 
any one official and his partisan following to surrender the rights, 
interests and even the independence of the United States of Amer- 
ica through a compact with other nations. 

Colonel Biyan has apparently never thought of the treaty and 
league of nations covenant except in connection with its influence 
upon the election day outlook for the Democratic party. It is for- 
tunate indeed that there were enough senators on Capitol Hill, of 
both political parties, who placed the national safety above mere 
partisan strategy. Through their courageous fight for funda- 
mental Americanism, this nation has been saved for the fulfill- 
ment of its destiny as a gi'eat free nation, the world's exemplar 
of ordered liberty under a constitution establishing a representa- 
tive republic which Colonel Bryan has for years been trying to 
destroy in favor of a constitution establishing a "pure" democracy, 
— another name for pure demagogy 
—March 27, 1920. 

fSior=3| 



Soldier and statesman, rarest unison; 

High-poised example of great duties done 

Simply as breathing, a world's honors worn 

As Life's mdifierent gifts to all men born ; 

Dumb form himself, unless it were to God, 

But for his barefoot soldiers eloquent. 

Tramping the snow to coral where they trod, 

Held by his awe in hollow-eyed content; 

Modest, yet firni as Nature's self ; unblamed 

Save by the men his nobler temper shamed ; 

Never seduced through show of present good 

By other than unsetting lights to steer 

New-trimmed in Heaven, nor than his steadfast mood 

More steadfast, far from rashness as from fear ; 

Rigid, but with himself first, grasping still 

In swerveless poise the wave-beat helm of will; 

Not honored then or now because he wooed 

The popular voice, but that he still withstood ; 

Broad-minded, higher-souled, there is but one 

Who was all this and ours, and all men's — Washington. 

— James Russell Lowell. 

IM 



TRUE DEMOCRACY AND TRUE 
IN TERN ATION ALISM 

This paper has frequently called atfention to the fact that in 
all the talk of "saving the world for democracy" that has been 
proceeding from hig-h places, the determination has persisted to 
use the word "democracy" in its European, rather than in its true 
and American sense. True democracy finds its expression in the 
republic; in representative government. That democracy safe for 
the world, providing both liberty and security, is the republicanism 
of the American Constitution. And the true internationalism, as 
this paper has often pointed out, is found in the peaceful residence 
under the American flag, of all the varied elements of European 
race and nationality ; in not merely their residence here, but their 
absorption of a common spirit of nationality based upon common 
conceptions of goveinment, rather than upon age-old predilections 
and prejudices. 

The ideals of this true democracy, this true internationalism, 
were lost sight of even by those who v/ere supposed to represent 
America at the peace conference. No attempt was made to' carry 
the ideals of this country to Europe, but an eifort was made to 
transfer the ideals of Eui^ope to America. Neither true democracy 
nor world peace are consistent with the European system of caste 
and class, of racial and dynastic jealousies and hatreds, of multi- 
plication of nationalities, which lie at the bottom of European 
civilization, caused the world war, and remain as causes for wars 
yet to come. 

Curiously enough this truth which some Americans, steeped in 
European conceptions, are unable to understand, some Eui-opean 
students of government clearly comprehend. Lady Frances Evelyn 
Warwick, Countess of Warwick, seems to have a better compre- 
hension of fundamental Americanism than some of those who 
stand in the forefront of American public life. In a speech recently 
delivered she revealed an understanding of the fact that the exist- 
ence of hereditary titles and caste based upon birth is not the mere 
unimportant survival of tradition some of our European] zed Amer- 
icans would have us believe, but that it is a symbol of a system 
entirely out of harmony witli the underlying principles of Amer- 
icanism, — that it is somtething, v/e may add for ourselves, with 
which v/e should not readily enter into partnership in any league 
of kingdoms and empires in which our national sovei'eignty is in 

]55 



AMERICANISM 

any deo-ree yielded. Let Europe give evidence of real conversion 
to the doctrines of true democracy, — which are something more 
than patronizing the poor or rule by class conscious "proletarians," 
— before we surrender our own real democracy and genuine inter- 
nationalism for the spurious and pretended sort. 

These words by a titled Englishwoman should be read by every 
American who wishes to have a truer understanding of what his 
own republic stands for in the eyes of a comprehending foreign 
student of our institutions: 

"I deplore kingship — it is the eternal foe of peace. I see no 
secuiity for Europe until democracy has grown up, learning to 
act as well as talk, until the prostitution of titles, honors, decora- 
tions and the rest, has been carried so far that even the most 
ignorant can see them for what they have become, until the anr- 
I'ower patriotism has seen light of the international. 

"The face of Europe is seamed and riddled with kingship and 
hereditary right. France alone, that nation of genius, has thrown 
it off. But when I look across the Atlantic it is to millions of 
miles that have never felt the footprint of a monarch. 

"Freedom, so long a fact with us here in England, a fact subject 
to a score of modifications, and yet a fact for all that, is now merely 
a name and threatens to become a memory. In the United States, 
in spite of unfavoi'able labor conditions in certain industrial cen- 
ters, freedom is a fact, and there is universal recognition of the 
worth of man. What wonder if those of us here who feel as I do 
tui'n to the greatest republic of the world that day by day is car- 
rying out the supreme experiment of amalgamation, proving that 
there are no races under the sun that given ample scope and equal 
liberty cannot dwell side by side in peace." 

Believing that, despite the acute problems of reconstruction, 
British vv^omen are still chiefly concerned with the recurrence of a 
war that has taken millions of their sons. Lady Warwick said : 

"The internationalist contends that the people who understand 
one another properly will not mass themselves into vast companies 
for mutual destruction. 

"They say there is nothing in race to justify antagonism, that 
the Englishman, Frenchman, German and Jew can live side by 
side in amity under proper conditions of life. The United States, 
where men of all countries live in peace, has demonstrated the 
truth of this theory — it is the greatest supporter of internation- 
alism on the planet. 

"Our European system of rule and manners makes flunkies of 
honest men. America makes men out of slaves who have fled 
from European misrule. I have long been thinking that I will end 
my davs in Amei'ica." 
—April 3, 1920. 



156 



PROVINCIALISM: WHAT IS IT IN THE 
UNITED STATES? 

The National Republican recently received a letter in which the 
statement was made that opponents of the un- Americanized cove- 
nant of the league of nations are guilty of "provincialism." 

The very use of that term demonstrates that those who employ 
it think they are living in a European colony rather than in a free 
and independent nation. The provincial is the inhabitant of a 
province who exalts local above national interests. What inhab- 
itants of the United States who imitate President Wilson in talking 
about American "provincialism" need to leaiii is that this is not a 
province or colony, but a nation. 

The real provincials in the United States are those who possess 
the provincial spirit ; who cannot comprehend the separateness and 
the greatness of their own country; who suppose it still to be a 
sort of European back yard, like Africa or the East Indies. These 
real provincials are so obsessed with European ideas and ideals 
that the thing we call Americanism has never soaked through. 

American nationalism is not provincialism, because the United 
States is something more than a European appendage ; remarkable 
as this may seem to our home-grown aliens, America has an iden- 
tity, a history, traditions and a destiny that are of importance 
independent of their relationship to any nation or set of nations 
in Europe. Our American provincials need to be awakened to the 
fact that they live in a nation, not a colony. And while they are 
acquiring a comprehension of this situation it would be well for 
them to drop this accusation of "provincialism" as applied to peo- 
ple who understand that the United States would be of some con- 
sequence in world history even if Europe were to sink tomorrow 
beneath the waves and become as much a forgotten continent as 
Atlantis. 
—April 24, 1920. 

IcnonzDl 



The dangers of the commonwealth subsided at the close of his 
second administration, he (Washington) felt himself justified, 
after dedicating forty-five years of his valuable life to her service, 
in withdrawing to receive with resignation the great change of 
nature, which his age and his toils demonstrated to be near. When 
he declined your future suffrages, he left you a legacy. What! 
like Caesar's to the Romans, money for your sports? Like Atta- 

157 



AMERICANISM 

Ills', a king-dom for your tyranny? No; lie left you not such 
baubles, nor for such pui^oses. He left you the records of wisdom 
for your government; a mirror for the faithful representation to 
your own view, of yourselves, your weaknesses, your advantages, 
your dangers; a magnet which points to the secret mines and 
windings of party spirit, faction, foreign influence ; a pillar to the 
unity of your republic; a band to inclose, conciliate and strengthen 
the Whole of your wonderful and almost boundless commAmities. 
Read, preserve the sacred deposit ; and lest posterity should forget 
the truth of its maxims, engrave them on his tomb, that they 
may read them when they weep before it. — George R. Minot, 1800. 

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord : 

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are 

stored ; 
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword; 
His truth is marching on. 

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; 
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps ; 
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps, 
His day is marching on. 

I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel : 
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal ; 
Let the Hero, born of wom.an, crush the seipent with his heel. 
Since God is niarching on." 

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat: 
Oh! be swift, m.y soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! 
Our God is marching on. 

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea. 
With a glory in his bosom tliat transfigures you and me: 
As He died to make m.en holy, let us die to make men free, 
While God is marching on! 

— Julia Ward Howe. 

The great doctrines of the Declaration germinated in the hearts 
of our fathers, and were developed under the new influences of 
this wilderness world; by the same subtle mystery which brings 
forth the rose from the germ of the rose-tree. Unconsciously to 
themselves the great truths were growing under the new condi- 
tions, until, like the century-plant, they blossomed into the match- 
less beauty of the Declaration of Independence, whose fruitage, in- 
creased and increasing, we enjoy today. — James A. Garfield. 

158 



MR. WILSON PERSISTS IN A PECULIAR OBSESSION 

In a letter to former Representative Jouett Shouse, of Kansas, 
read at the Kansas Democratic state convention, President Wilson 
said: 

"The issue which it is our duty to raise with the voters of the 
country involves nothing less than the honor of the United States 
and the redemption of its most solemn obligations, its obligations 
to its associates in the great war and to mankind, to whom it gave 
the most explicit pledge when it went to war, not merely to win a 
victory in arms, but also to follow up that victory with the estab- 
lishment of such a concert of nations as would guarantee the 
permanence of a peace based on justice." 

President Wilson is still indulging the modest theory that he is 
the United States. The Congress of the United States, which acts 
on behalf of the American people in declaring war, said nothing in 
the declaration about promising the world that it would not only 
win the war but establish a concert of nations that would guaran- 
tee eternal peace on eaith. That would have been a fool promise 
to make, because no man or body of men with anj'- regard for its 
word would promise something it would manifestly be impossible 
to certainly fulfill. Whether or not eternal world peace is possible 
is still a moot question, and whether or not the contraption rigged 
up at Paris would accomplish that end is, to say the least, a debat- 
able proposition. 

The only declarations of purpose on the part of this country in 
entering the war other than that given in President Wilson's mes- 
sage to Congress calling for a declaration of war against Germany 
and in the declaration of war itself, — the defense of the rights and 
interests of the American people, — were made by President Wilson 
himself. These were not" promises" to our associates in the war 
and to mankind; we didn't have to promise anything in order to 
get into a fight from which we expected nothing and where the 
effect manifestly was to save from defeat the allies to whom Pres- 
ident Wilson now declares we made "solemn promises." As for 
the rest of mankind, it can scarcely be claimed that we had to 
make promises to Germ.any, Austria, Turkey and company in order 
to get the privilege of entering the war; they would not have 
given their consent if we had. 

President Wilson used the war as a frame upon which to spread 
a great many declarations that had nothing to do with the war or 
our part or purpose in it. Just as the greedy conti'actor used the 

159 



AMERICANISM 

war as an excuse for putting- things over on the pubhc, so Presi- 
dent Wilson employed it as a background for an attempt to make 
the world over on the pattern of the new freedom. In so doing he 
did not ask the consent of anybody, and he had no mandate from 
the people for the formulation of the Fourteen points v/hich were 
so completely abandoned by him and repudiated by his associates 
in the preparation of the treaty of Paris. The well remembered 
fact is that President Wilson put up to the people of the country 
in October, 1918, the issue of whether or not he was their fully 
authorized representative in all that had to do with settling the 
issues of the World war, and the verdict at the polls was such 
that any chief executive with less of an obsession as to his own 
omniscience and omnipotence would have taken the hint and called 
in a few other people to cooperate in defining the policies of the 
country. 

The statement that all these personal declarations of President 
Wilson, made not only without authority but even in the face of 
direct repudiation of the people, ai"e binding upon the United 
States as "solemn obligations" which this country must fulfill "as 
a matter of honor" is mere rhetorical flapdoodle. Some of the 
diplomats who skinned Mr. Wilson out of his marbles at Paris 
might be excused foi- an ignorance of the division of powers under 
the American Constitution which make such declarations prepos- 
terous, but President Wilson has posed as a student and writer on 
the American Constitution, and undoubtedly knows better. 

It isn't at all necessary in this country to wage a campaign to 
induce the American people to preserve the honor of this nation in 
its relations with the rest of the world. The great American 
republic has always kept its "solemn obligations," and it always 
will. If an instrumentality to hold the United States to the keep- 
ing of its pledges were necessaiy, the job would hardly be turned 
over to the party and the leadership which declared for a single 
presidential term, for economy in public expenditures, reduction of 
the high cost of living, destruction of the monopolist and the 
profiteer, free Panama Canal tolls for American coastwise shipping 
and a few little things like that, beside promising somewhat "sol- 
emnly" to "keep us out of war." 
—May 1, 1920. 



CZIOEZD 



As the United States is the freest of all nations, so, too, its i)eo- 
ple sympathize with all people struggling for liberty and self-gov- 
ernment, but while so sympathizing it is due to our honor that 
we should abstain from enforcing our views upon unwilling na- 
tions and from taking an interested part, without invitation, in 
the quarrels between different nations or between governments 
and their subjects.- — U. S. Grant. 

160 



THE AMERICAN CHURCHES AND THE LEAGUE 

OF NATIONS 

At the national convention of the Southern Baptists, just closed 
at Washington, a distinguished preacher of the denomination spoke 
to a large audience assembled at the east front of the capitol for 
a Sunday evening service. He declared in the course of his ad- 
dress that he "dared to say" within the shadow of the American 
Senate chamber that the American people v>^ere for some foiin of 
world organization that would guarantee the world's peace, and 
that the dream of Tennyson of a "parliament of man" would yet 
be realized in fulfillment of the hope of the "stricken man in the 
White House." 

No one need fear to say in the shadow of the Senate chamber 
that he favors a foiTn of world organization that would ensure 
world peace. There is not a man in the United States Senate, of 
any party, who would not favor such an organization. The little 
matter which pi'opagandists of the Wilson brand of international- 
ism overlook is that there is a very radical difference of opinion 
as to the service which the league of nations, as proposed by Pres- 
ident Wilson, would render to world peace. There are millions of 
people in this country, just as much devoted to peace as this speak- 
er could be, who cannot understand hov/ a scheme which would 
bind this country to participation in every war that might spring 
out of the age-old rivalries, hati'eds and ambitions of the continent 
of Europe, can be accepted by reasonable people as a contribution 
to the peace of this continent and especially of the American 
people. 

The United States has not been a warlike nation. This govern- 
ment has never fought a war which did not have behind it a high 
and holy purpose, if we except the Mexican war, beneficent in its 
results to the people of the territory thus acquired by the United 
States, even if not immediately justifiable. This nation does not 
need a \N'orld government dominated by the chancellories of war- 
ring Europe, to keep it fi-om engaging in unjustifiable war, and the 
assumption that the peace of our nation will be safeguarded by the 
treaty and league covenant concocted at Paris is entirely without 
warrant in common sense. 

It is as true today as it was in Washington's time that the soil 
of Europe is strev/n thick with the seed of war. The settlement 
of the great struggle just ended has added to rather than sub- 

161 



AMERICANISM 

tracted from these causes of war. In this republic we have welded 
a hundred and ten millions of people into a homogeneous nation. In 
Europe are multiplied lines of division, based upon commercial 
I'ivalries, territorial ambitions, dynastic hatreds, differences in 
language, ideals, religious faith and national aspirations. We have 
established in Europe a dozen new nations, no one of which is in 
position to achieve its economic independence, and every one of 
which, therefore, is looking enviously at the territory or trade of 
its neighbors for the means of expansion deemed necessary to 
national life. Already several wars have been waged on the basis 
of these differences; some are in progress now. 

Now it is claimed by the Wilsonian internationalists that in 
some way, as the result of our unselfish participation in the World 
war, and presumably because we came out of it asking and getting 
nothing by way of territorial acquisitions, we are bound to link our 
destiny with that of Europe and assume the ungrateful task of 
keeping the peace of Europe and of the world. If we as a people 
were looking for a means of making ourselves the most hated na- 
tion in the world this would give us the opportunity desired. We 
have already made considerable progress toward the attainment 
of that unenviable distinction by our course at the Paris peace 
conference. 

Those who talk glibly of the beauties of peace, and then assume 
that this sort of oratory justifies the provisions of the Paris peace 
treaty and league of nations covenant, either are exceedingly ig- 
norant of the provisions and implications of the treaty and cove- 
nant, or are willing to help the national administration put it over 
on the people of this country. The truth is that the Wilsonian 
covenant makes eveiy boy in the United States a possible soldier 
in every war of the world. It takes from this country the defense 
of our peculiarly fortunate situation, and requires Uncle Sam to 
take pot luck with Europe. Talk of "idealism" and superior "mo- 
rality" and larger devotion to world welfare in connection with 
this undertaking is a mere continuance of the habit of mindless 
thinking and senseless speaking which became all too common 
under the sway of war psychology. 

It occurs to a layman to suggest that some of the clerical lead- 
ers who, in violation of the sentiments of the vast majority of the 
plain Americans who sit in the pews of the churches, are endeavor- 
ing to commit religious bodies to the sacrifice of American ideals, 
rights and interests through the subordination of this republic to 
the authority of a super-state, might v;ith considerable propriety 
begin a little nearer home in their labors for world unity. So long 
as single denominations of a single branch of a single religion in 
the United States are unable because of mere sectional differences, 
to accept a common government there ought to be a little more 
modesty about asking Americans to merge their nation into a 
world corporation in which the United States will held only about 

162 



AMERICANISM 

two per cent of the stock. Until those of our rehgious leaders who 
are using their posts of authority to promote the Wilson covenant, 
are ready to accept not only a common government for all branches 
of single denominations, but even a common government for 
Protestantism and Catholicism, and then a world government of 
Mohammedanism, Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Shintoism, 
Zoroastrianism and Christianity in which Christianity shall play a 
minority role, then they ought to go a little slow in proposing that 
Americans merge their ideals and sovereignty with the world's em- 
pires, kingdoms and quasi republics. The misuse of church organ- 
izations and publications in behalf of the un-Americanized cove- 
nant is exceedingly distasteful to the vast majority of the men and 
women who go to make up the churches of this countiy. Far more 
harm has been done to the churches than good to the adminis- 
tration by the vast effort which has been made to commit the 
churches of the United States to support of the super-government 
devised by the diplomats at Paris. For the people understand 
that the eifect if not the purpose of this scheme of world gov- 
ernment as Mr. Wilson brought it home was to guarantee the 
spoils of victory to certain great European and Asiatic powers, 
flatten out weaker nations like China, and link the destiny of this 
republic with that of many nations which are as far from accept- 
ance of this nation's ideals as they vrere when Washington warned 
Americans against entanglement with tlie primary concerns of 
Europe. 
—May 22, 1920. 

jCZIOEZDl 

How many, like the great Emmet, have died and left only a 
name to attract our admiration for their virtues, and our regret 
for their untimely fall, to excite to deeds which they would but 
could not effect? But what has Washington left behind, save the 
glory of a name? The independent mind, the conscious pride, the 
ennobling principle of the soul, — a nation of freemen. What did 
he leave ? He left us to ourselves. This is the sum of our liberties, 
the first principle of government, the power of public opinion, the 
only permanent power on earth. When did a people flourish like 
Americans? Yet where, in a time of peace, has more use been 
made of the pen, or less with the sword of power? When did a 
religion flourish like the Christian, since they have done away^with 
intolerance? Since, men have come to believe that physical force 
cannot effect the immortal part, and that religion is between the 
conscience and the Creator only. He of 622, who with the sword 
propagated his doctrines through Arabia, and the greater part of 
the barbarian world, against the pov/er of whose tenets the phys- 
ical force of all Christendom was opposed in vain, under the effec- 
tive operations of freedom of opinion, is fast passing the way of 
all error. Napoleon, the contemporary of our Washington, is fast 

1G3 



AMERICANISM 

dying- away from the lips of men. He who shook the whole civil- 
ized earth ; who, in an age of knowledge and concert among nations, 
held the world at bay ; — at whose exploits the imagination becomes 
bewildered, — who, in the eve of his glory, was honored with the 
pathetic appellation of "the last lone captive of millions in war," — 
even he is now known only in history. The vast empire was fast 
tumbling to ruins while he yet held the sword. He passed away, 
and left no successor there ! The unhallowed light which obscured 
is gone; but brightly beams yet the name of Washington! 

This freedom of opinion, which has done so much for the polit- 
ical and religious liberty of America, has not been confined to this 
continent. People of other countries begin to inquire, to examine, 
to reason for themselves. Error has fled before it, and the most 
inveterate prejudices are dissolved and gone. Such an unlimited 
remedy has in some cases, indeed, apparently proved injurious, 
but the evil is to be attributed to the peculiarity of the attendant 
circumstances, or the ill-timed application. Let us not force our 
tenets upon foreigners. For, if we subject opinion to coercion, 
who shall be our inquisitors? No; let us do as we have done, as 
we are now doing, and then call upon the nations to examine, to 
scrutinize, and to condemn! No! They cannot look upon Amer- 
ica, today, and pity; for the gladdened heart disclaims all woe. 
They cannot look upon her and deride; for genius and literature 
and science are soaring above the high places of birth and pag- 
eantry. They cannot look upon us, and defy; for the hearts of 
thirteen millions are warm in virtuous emulation — their arms 
•steeled in the cause of their country. Her productions are wafted 
to every shore; her flag is seen waving in every sea. She has 
wrested the glorious motto from the once queen of the sea, and 
high on our banner, by the stars and stripes, is seen; 

"Columbia needs no bulwark. 
No towers along the steep. 

Her march is o'er the mountain wave, 
Her home is on the deep." 

— Cassius Marcellus Clay. 

There is a rising tide of socialism which threatens the founda- 
tions of representative democracy the world over. There are ^vell- 
meaning men in their ranks. They believe that the millennium 
is coming, that the government can exercise the functions of all 
private enterprise and that all fields of human endeavor can be 
equalized. It is an old, old dream, which the world has discarded 
again and again since the dawn of civilization. The best guar- 
antees to the people of this country for the security of our institu- 
tions are those principles embodied in the Bill of Rights, which 
have been tried by the experience of ages and are firmly fixed in 
the Constitution of this land. — Senator Frank B. Kellogg, of 
Minnesota. 

1G4 



"WHY QUIT OUR OWN TO STAND UPON 
FOREIGN GROUND?". 

The acceptance of a "mandate," another name for protectorate, 
over Armenia, as now formally proposed by President Wilson, 
would definitely involve the American people in the complications 
of Old World international politics. 

Our associates in the World war have divided up, through annex- 
ations and mandatories, all the spoils of war which represent assets 
rather than liabilities. We are asked to take over and administer 
the affairs of an area which has for centuries been the scene of 
the most intense racial and religious conflict. The powers have 
taken from the area oi'iginally belonging to Annenia all those por- 
tions which possess wealth or commercial possibilities, and are 
asking the United States government to take under its care the 
pitiable remainder and maintain it on an eleemosynary basis. 

The risk of the undeitaking would not arise primarily from the 
mere fact of our control of the affairs of the republic of Armenia, 
but from the establishment of an American outpost in the Near 
East which would physically involve us in all the mutations of 
European politics in this battle ground of Old World intrigue. It 
would mean keeping an armed force in the Near East for many 
years to come, and it would mean that this country would not be 
free to either enter or refuse to enter the future wars that may, 
and probably will, result from the failure of the peace conference 
to settle the problems arising out of the war. 

Curiously enough this demand that we involve ourselves in Euro- 
pean and Asiatic politics through the acceptance of such responsi- 
bility in Armenia, comes from the very politicians who have al- 
ways denounced the United States for the work it has done in the 
Philippine Islands. In the Philippine archipelago, having full au- 
thority as well as responsibility, this country has done a great 
work for the ten million people who as the result of the war with 
Spain came beneath American sovereignty. Mr. Wilson and his 
party denounced the extension of American authority to the Philip- 
pines, and they have all along been demanding that we abandon 
these islands to their fate. They will doubtless declare at San 
Francisco that it is the duty of the United States to abandon the 
Philippine Islands to Mexicanization or Japanization. 

This project of an American outpost in the Near East comes, 
moreover, from the same politicians who have for the past seven 

lfi5 



AMERICANISM 

years successfully resisted the demand that we do something to 
compose conditions menacing us as a people immediately, next door 
in the republic of Mexico. Conditions in Mexico are not much bet- 
ter, for the masses of the people, than they are in Armenia. Yet 
we are told by Mr. Wilson and his party that it would be an act 
of criminal aggression for us to use the great power of this repub- 
lic to bring tranquility and prosperity and safety of life and prop- 
erty even to the Mexican people in Mexico, much less to defend our 
own people, rights' and interests there. In this our Democratic 
friends are much like the man who preaches loudly the benefits 
of certain social and political nostrums to cure all the ailments 
of the human race, but who neglects and abuses his own family 
in his own home. 

The appeal in behalf of an American mandate in Armenia is 
made in the name of suffering humanity. We are told of the 
terrible conditions prevailing in that hapless country, and of our 
duty to alleviate the suffering of the people there. There is much 
more human suffering in the world than it will ever be possible 
for the generosity of America to alleviate. It is to be feared, more- 
over, that some of the people who are asking the American people 
to fare abroad as crusaders, overlook the gravity of home prob- 
lems, which, if not solved within the next few years, may send this 
republic on the rocks. Have the American people met all the 
claims upon their aid and cooperation which may fairly be made 
within the borders of this republic and upon this continent? 

The American people do not want to shirk any responsibility 
that has or may properly come to them as the result of the World 
war. Many of us cannot comprehend, however, the talk of those 
who seem to think that we have earned by the great sacrifices of 
blood and treasure made in the great conflict, sacrifices which saved 
Europe from the domination of an autocratic military power, only 
the duty of making further sacrifices while our associates in the 
war are busily engaged in annexing territory and indemnities. 
There is a mawkish sentimentality to which some people are 
given that may lead an individual, as well as a nation, far astray. 
We have had a great deal of this over-wrought sentimentality on 
tap during the whole war period. It is high time for the re-en- 
thronement, in our national thinking, of old-fashioned common 
sense. 

The American people and the American government have near 
at home duties far more important than that of propping up arti- 
ficially created nations in Europe. We are willing to go to the 
border line of safety in extending help to the poor and oppressed 
peoples of Europe. This has been demonstrated so often that such 
an assertion is not open to question by any reasonable person. Risk- 
ing the peace and safety of this country by thrusting our nation 
into the maelstrom of European political intrigue, backed by bay- 
onets and battleships, is quite another matter. We all have a 

166 



AMERICANISM 

right to be generous, but not with the interests and ideals of this 
repiibhc of ours. 

In the borders of this repubhc, in our island possessions, in 
Mexico, in Cuba, on the Isthmus of Panama, on the two continents 
of this hemisphere, are duties and responsibilities enough for the 
American people. Those who would lead this nation out of the 
old pathways and put its feet on the devious road of Old World 
politics, merely do not comprehend the mission of this republic. 
They are of the Old, and not of the New world. They are too 
much affected by European ideas, European ideals, European prop- 
aganda; too much influenced by the over-wrought sentimentalism 
carefully propagated by alien and domestic interests which have 
their own selfish ends to serve and are willing to make well mean- 
ing men and women their dupes in achieving these sinister pur- 
poses. 

Let us stand by the Americanism of the founding fathers of this 
republic, and of the great line of American heroes and martyrs 
who have come after them, — who have fought and wrought that 
this nation might live in the fulfillment of the mission for which 
it was established. Let us serve the world by the upholding of 
an ideal and the povvcr of a great example. Let us hold fast to 
the fundamentals of the faith of Washington and Lincoln and 
Roosevelt. Let us keep our America free from the entanglements 
of European politics, with its age-old hatreds and rivalries, its 
racial and dynastic conflicts, its clashing territorial and trade am- 
bitions, which we are as powerless to compose as to stop with 
mere phrases the rolling flood of Niagara. 

We stand at the turning of the highway of American destiny. 
Either we shall take the downward path, after a century and a 
half of upward climbing, to the old, dark, winding, bloody road 
we left behind with Washington, or we shall keep on forging to- 
ward the goal of good to all mankind the foundei's and preservers 
of this republic have constantly held as their objective. 

Shutting our ears to the specious pleas of pretended and deluded 
humanitarianism, let us cling to the true intei'nationalism our na- 
tion has exemplified from its earliest years, sei'ving the world by 
upholding the ideals, the rights, the interests and the independence 
of that republic which is the world's last, best hope of ordered lib- 
erty: of Lincoln's 

"Government of the people 
"By the people, for the people." 
—May 29, 1920. 

fcnoEiDl 



Men, the hour is fast approaching on which the honor and the 
success of the army and the safety of our bleeding country will 
depend. Remember that you are free men, fighting for the bless- 
ings of liberty, that slavery will be your portion, and that of your 



167 



AMEPwICANISM 

children, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.— George Wash- 
ington. 

What flower is this that greets the morn, 
[ts hues from Heaven so freshly born? 
With burning star and flaming band 
It kindles all the sunset land: 
Oh, tell us what its name may be — 
Is this the Flower of Liberty? 

It is the banner of the free, 

The starry Flower of Liberty! 

In savage Nature's far abode 

Its tender seed our fathers sowed ; 

The storm-winds rocked its swelling bud, 

Its opening leaves were streaked with blood. 

Till lo! earth's tyrants shook to see 

The full-blown Flower of Liberty! 

Then hail the banner of the free, 

The starry Flower of Liberty! 

Behold its streaming rays unite. 
One mingled flood of braided light — 
The red that fires the Southern rose 
With spotless white from Northern snows, 
And, spangled o'er its azure, see 
The sister Stars of Liberty! 

Then hail the banner of the free. 

The starry Flower of Liberty! 

The blades of heroes fence it round. 
Where'er it springs is holy ground; 
From tower and dome its glories spread; 
It waves where lonely sentries tread; 
It makes the land as ocean free, 
And plants an empire on the sea! 

Then hail the banner of the free. 

The starry Flower of Liberty! 

Thy sacred leaves, fair Freedom's flower, 
Shall ever float on dome and tower, 
To all their heavenly colors true. 
In blackening frost or crimson dew — 
And God love us as we love thee. 
Thrice holy Flower of Liberty! 

Then hail the banner of the free, 

The starry Flower of Liberty! 

—Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

1G8 



WHAT AMERICANISM MEANS,— 
THE GENERAL WELFARE 

Americanism means serving, through government, the general 
welfare, rather than the selfish aims and ends of groups, classes, 
elements or individuals. 

The system of organizing groups and crowds and gangs of peo- 
ple and then forcing upon the people schemes hatched in the special 
interests of some one particular element, at the sacrifice of the 
general interests, is a violation of the fundamental principle of 
Americanism. 

The man or woman to whom the general welfare is not more 
important than the attainment of the immediate selfish ends of 
the particular group to which he or she belongs, is not a good 
American, because not possessed by the true spirit of American- 
ism. 

Government by bullyragging, government by threat, govern- 
ment by fear, as against the common good, has been the con- 
stantly increasing menace by which, now, the very life of this 
republic is threatened. 

Class loyalty, group loyalty, gang loyalty, racial loyalty, loyalty 
to dynasties or persons rather than principles, as opposed to loyalty 
to government existing for the service of all, without regard to 
caste or class, is the curse of European civilization. 

A larger fealty to the common good is what Americanism stands 
for. It is what Republicanism must stand for, if this nation is to 
be saved from that form of civil war which arises from the con- 
tinuous battle of classes, within and without the law, for advantage 
attained at the sacrifice of the principles of equity in human rela- 
tionship fundamental in a real republic. 

Europe is a crazy quilt of warring tribes, races, tongues, each 
hating and ready to fight the others. Its age-old religious and 
racial antagonisms, its class and caste divisions, its commercial 
and dynastic jealousies and rivalries, are the things that have 
kept it and will keep it at war so long as they persist, regardless 
of scraps of papers or leagues of nations founded upon grandilo- 
quent phrases. 

Here in America we have a government whose national motto 
is "Out of many, one." Out of many races, religions, classes, 
groups, one people ; one union, indivisible, now and forever. 

To lose that ideal would be to lose America, 

16!) 



AMERICANISM 

Yet many forces are at work seeking to destroy that for which 
this republic was founded and has to this time been maintained 
by the brave and the great who have fought and wrought that 
this nation might be born and Hve in the fulfihment of its mission. 

There are those vv'ho would Europeanize America. They would 
involve it in the tangled web of European intrigue which we have 
no part in weaving and which would enmesh us only to our ov/n 
destruction. 

Then they would transplant here the same system of caste and 
class and warring groups that is keeping Europe face to face 
with civil as well as international war. 

They are preaching here the gospel that every element, every 
occupation, every "class," should hate and fight and oppress the 
others ; and that the purpose of every such class should be to seize 
the government and use it as a means of oppressing, undoing and 
even exterminating the othei's. 

Those who preach, and those v/ho accept, such a gospel, are 
traitors to representative republicanism in the true sense of that 
term, little understood anywhere in the world beyond the borders 
of the United States. 

Now is a time for standing true to the real, underlying, funda- 
mental and eternal truths of American republicanism and repub- 
lican Americanism. 

The Republican party must stand forth as the apostle of this 
historic conception of Americanism. 

It must boldly fight for it if this nation is to be saved. 

The perils of' the time are not imaginary. We are face to face 
with them. 

The nation will survive them. But only through the patriotic, 
the devoted, the consecrated service of men who comprehend and 
love and are willing, regardless of immediate consequences, to 
battle for true Americanism ; the Americanism of Washington, of 
Lincoln, of Roosevelt and of the millions who have stood by and 
with them in all that they did to the great end that 
"Government of the people, 
"By the people, for the people, 
"Shall not perish from the earth." 
—June 19, 1920. 

f^OCZDl 

The states are represented by the starry flag, that their children 
have borne on so many fields of glory, the ever shining symbol of 
one nation and many states. — David Dudley Field. 

Liberty is a slow fruit. It is never cheap; it is made difficult 
because freedom is the accomplishment and perfectness of man.— 
Emerson. 

170 



: PRESERVE THE CONSTITUTION: AN 

OVERSHADOWING ISSUE 

"The Republican party reaffirms its unyielding devotion to the 
Constitution of the United States. * * * It will resist all attempts 
to overthrow the foundations of the government, or to weaken 
the force of its controlling principles and ideals, whether these 
attempts be made in the form of international policy or of domestic 
agitation." 

"We undertake to end executive autocracy and to restore to 
the people their constitutional government." 

In these and other phrases the Republicans of the nation, in 
recent representative convention assembled, renewed their pledge 
of allegiance to the American Constitution. 

Except for the unprecedented occurrences of the past few years, 
such a pledge of loyalty to the fundamental law of the republic 
would seem to be superfluous. Nothing is more apparent now, 
however, than that the preservation of the American Constitution, 
in letter and spirit, is one of the chief issues, if not the overshadow- 
ing issue, of the campaign. 

The Constitution has been challenged, as the Republican nation- 
al platform says, from v/ithin and without; from within by those 
who would change both the form and the spirit of our institutions ; 
from without by those who would substitute for the American 
Constitution the constitution of a world government sacrificial of 
American rights, interests and ideals. 

Gladstone said of the American Constitution that it was the 
greatest work ever struck off at a given moment by the brain 
and hand of man. It has been the chart and compass of American 
nationality from the inauguration of George Washington as Presi- 
dent to the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, who himself took 
an oath to support and protect the great plan of government it 
provides, under which the American nation has gi'own from a 
feeble band of petty states to the place of primacy in the world 
in national wealth and moral greatness. 

That the charter of ordered liberty under which this nation has 
so far and so swiftly advanced, should be subjected to attack from 
within and without, and that these attacks should menace the 
perpetuity of our institutions as they were handed down to us by 
Washington and as they were preserved by Lincoln, seems incred- 
ible. Yet it is manifestly true that today, as never before in our 

171 



AMERICANISM 

history, the borers from within and the assailants from without 
have so far carried forward the work of undermining the founda- 
tions of American representative government, that the perpetuity 
of our institutions is at issue. 

The American Constitution provides for a form of government 
without precedent in political history. It is a form of government 
which excludes all forms of autocracy, — the autocracy of the mob 
as well as the autocracy of the m.onarch. The American Constitu- 
tion is built upon the theory that governments are made for the 
service of men, and not men for the service of governments. It 
has thrown about the citizen of the republic the protection of cer- 
tain guarantees of person and property which no tyrant or body 
of tyrants may lawfully disregard. The theory of the American 
Constitution is that there is a sovereignty in the individual which 
even law making bodies and executives may not invade. Thus we 
have imbedded in the Constitution the guarantees of free speech, 
free press and the right of the individual to v/orship according to 
the dictates of his own conscience. Never until recently have the 
American people witnessed in high places a tendency to disregard 
some of the fundamental rights of American citizenship. 

Never until recent months have the American people confront- 
ed an attempt to consolidate the powers of at least two branches 
of government in one branch, and that branch representing only 
the will of a single individual. The Republican national platform 
makes an important promise to the American people when it 
pledges the end of executive usurpation and the restoration to the 
people of their constitutional government. 

Never until recent months have the people of the United States 
witnessed an effort to nullify their Constitution through a pro- 
posed merging of Am.erican nationality into the world-wide sway 
of a super-state ; the transference of powers hitherto exercised by 
representatives of the American people in legislative and executive 
authority, to a world council sitting on the other side of the A.t- 
lantic. That such a revolution could be seriously proposed would 
have startled not only the first President of the republic, but 
every chief executive of this nation from the beginning to the 
most recent years. 

Demagogues and doctrinaires are filling the air with clamor in 
favor of the abandonment of the ancient landmarks of American 
constitutional government, and the launching of the ship of state 
upon the uncharted seas of internationalism and of ''pure" democ- 
racy. What they propose has been warned against not only by 
the founders of this republic, but by the long line of national 
heroes and statesm.en who have succeeded them as leaders and 
spokesmen of the thought of the American people. What has 
been secured to the American people at the sacrifice of so much 
labor and sacrifice, these demagogues and doctrinaires would risk 

172 



AMERICANISM 

in academic experiment, with no serious thought of the conse- 
quences of failure to this nation and to the world. 

Well it is that the platform of national Republicanism should 
call upon the American people to rally to the support of their na- 
tional Constitution. Well it will be if the people of this republic 
respond to that call in such emphatic and unmistakable fashion 
that never again within the experience of men and women now 
living will the controlling principles and ideals of this representa- 
tive republic, as it was founded and as it has been preserved 
throughout a century and a third of national life, be seriously 
challenged by any political leader or any political party. 
—July 3, 1920. 



No cause is so bound up with religion as the cause of political 
liberty and the rights of man. Unless I have read history back- 
wards, — unless Magna Charta is a mistake, and the Bill of Rights 
a sham, and the Declaration of Independence a contumacious false- 
hood, — unless the sages and heroes and martyrs, who have fought 
and bled, were impostors, — unless the sublimest transaction in 
modern history, on Tower Hill, in the Parliaments of London, on 
the sea-tossed Mayflower, — unless these are all deceitful, there is 
no cause so linked with religion as the cause of democratic liberty. 

And, sir, not only are all the moral principles, which we can 
summon up, on the side of this great cause, but the physical move- 
ments of the age attend it and advance it. Nature is republican. 
The discoveries of science are republican. Sir, what are these 
new forces, steam and electricity, but powers that are leveling all 
factitious distinctions, and forcing the world on to a noble destiny ? 
Have they not already propelled the nineteenth century a thou- 
sand years ahead ? What are they but the servitors of the people, 
and not of a class ? Does not the poor man of today ride in a car 
dragged by forces such as never waited on kings, or drove the 
wheels of triumphal chariots? Does he not yoke the lightning, 
and touch the magnetic nerves of the world ? The steam-engine is 
a democrat. It is the popular heart that throbs in its iron pulses. 
And the electric telegraph writes upon the walls of despotism: 
"Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin!" There is a process going on in 
the moral and political world. — like that in the physical world, — 
crumbling the old Saurian forms of past ages, the heritage of the 
absurd and unjust feudal system, under which serfs labored and 
gentlemen spent their lives in fighting and feasting. It is time 
that this opprobrium of toil were done away. Ashamed to toil, art 
thou? ashamed of thy dingy workshop and dusty labor-field; of 
thy hard hand, scarred with service more honorable than that of 
war; of thy soiled and weather-stained garments, on which mother 
nature has embroidered, midst sun and rain, midst fire and steam, 
her own heraldic honors? Ashamed of these tokens and titles, 

173 



AMERICANISM 

and envious of the flaunting robes of imbecile idleness and vanity ? 
It is treason to nature, — it is impiety to Heaven, — it is breaking 
Heaven's great ordinance. Toil, I repeat, toil, either of the brain, 
of the heart, or of the hand, is the only true manhood, the only 
true nobility. — Edwin Hubbell Chapin. 



Fair liberty, our soul's most darling prize, 

A bleeding victim flits before our eyes ; 

Was it for this our great forefathers rode 

O'er a vast ocean to this bleak abode! 

When liberty was into contest brought, 

And loss of life was but a second thought; 

By pious violence rejected thence, 

To try the utmost stretch of providence; 

The deep, unconscious of the furrowing keel, 

Essayed the tempest to rebuke their zeal ; 

The tawny natives and inclement sky 

Put on their terrors, and command to fly; 

They mock at danger; what can those appall 

To whom fair liberty is all in all? 

See the new world their purchase, blest domain, 

Where lordly tyrants never forged the chain; 

The prize of valor, and the gift of prayer, 

^Hear this and redden, each degenerate heir! 

Is it for you their honor to betray, ^ 

And give the harvest of their blood away? 

Look back with reverence, awed to just esteem, 

Preserve the blessings handed down from them ; 

If not, look forward, look with deep despair, 

And dread the curses of your beggared heir; 

What bosom beats not, when such themes excite? 

Be men, be gods, be stubborn in the right. 

— Benj. Church, 1765. 

In our mighty development we have added to the perils of which 
Washington warned. The danger has not been in party associa- 
tion, but in party appeal, or surrender, to faction. 

Our growth, our diversification, our nation-wide communication, 
our profit-bearing selfishness — these have filled the land with or- 
ganized factions, not geographical as Washington so much feared, 
but commercial, industrial, agricultural and professional, each 
seeking to promote the interests of its own, not without justifica- 
tion at times, but often a menace in exacting privilege and favor 
through the utterance of political threats. If popular government 
IS to sui*vive it must grant exact justice to all men and fear none. 
— Warren G. Harding. 

174 



THE INTERNATIONAL ISSUE BETWEEN 
THE TWO PARTIES 

The issue between the Democratic and Republican parties on 
international questions in this campaign may be summarized as 
follows : 

The Democratic party stands for the perpetuation of the Wilson 
policy of one-man control in international alfairs. It endorses 
President Wilson's course in treating the problem of American 
relations with the rest of the vrorld as a mere personal affair of his 
own; his exclusion of all but his own partisans from participation 
in formulating the terms of peace and the construction of a plan 
of world government; his demand that a so-called covenant for a 
league of nations sacrificial in its original form of American rights, 
interests, ideals and even independence be adopted as a work of 
omniscience or inspiration, without alteration except in the direc- 
tion of making clearer the obligations of this nation to the rest 
of the world under it. 

The Republican party believes that treaties of peace should be 
formulated in accordance with American constitutional provisions, 
and in harmony with American precedents and traditions. Repub- 
licans believe that President Wilson violated the Constitution he 
swore to uphold when he constituted himself the legislative repre- 
sentative of the American people in the formulation of a world 
government and blocked a treaty of peace, first until he could link 
the league covenant with it for the announced purpose of prevent- 
ing action upon it in the United States on its own merits rather 
than as a "rider" on the treaty of peace; and again until he could 
force it down the throat of an unwilling Senate and people. Still 
Republicans have demonstrated clearly enough that they have 
stood ready to accept whatever of good may have come out of the 
Pai'is peace conference and to make many concessions on matters 
of detail. There was never a time from the date of his return to 
the United States early last summer until the adjournment of 
Congress a year later when President Wilson might not have 
brought about the acceptance of a league covenant with American- 
izing reservations Europe would have been willing to accept. He 
refused to accept the opportunity because he was more concerned 
in creating an issue for the 1020 campaign than in bringing about 
the establishment of a league of nations that would be something- 
more than a monument to himself. 

175 



AMERICANISM 

The Republican party declares in its Chieago platform in favor 
of a league of justice for the preservation of the world's peace, 
rather than a league of force that v/ould perpetuate every inter- 
national injustice and thus make war perpetual. Its platform 
endorses the fight of the senators who stood for the Americaniza- 
tion of the treaty and pledges the next Republican national admin- 
istration "to such agreements with other nations of the world as 
shall meet the full duty of America to civilization and humanity, 
in accordance with American ideals and without surrendeiing the 
light of the American people to exercise its judgment and its 
power in favor of justice and peace." 

As a member of the Senate, Mr. Harding voted for the Lodge 
reservations, through which it was sought to make the treaty and 
covenant safe for America. In his speech of acceptance he clearly 
indicated that he was for no policy of aloofness in international 
relationships, and said : "We do not mean to shun a single respon- 
sibility of this republic to world civilization." He condemned the 
effort' of President Wilson to force upon this country a covenant 
destructive of American rights, interests, sovereignty and ideals, 
and commended the battle waged for its Americanization. And 
Senator Harding makes this pledge for the future : 

"Disposed as we are, the way is very simple. Let the failure 
attending assumption, obstinacy, impracticability and delay be 
recognized, and let us find the big, practical, unselfish way to do 
our part, neither covetous because of ambition nor hesitant 
through fear, but ready to serve ourselves, humanity and God. 
With a Senate advising as the Constitution contemplates, I would 
hopefully approach the nations of Europe and of the earth, pro- 
posing that understanding which makes us a willing participant 
in the consecration of nations to a new relationship, to commit 
the moral forces of the world, America included, to peace and inter- 
national justice, still leaving America free, independent and self- 
reliant, but ofi'ering friendship to all the world. 

"If men call for more specific details, I remind them that moral 
committals are broad and all inclusive, and we are contemplating 
peoples in the concord of humanity's advancement. From our own 
viewpoint the program is specifically American, and we mean to l)e 
Americans first, to all the world." 

This is not to be interpreted as a repudiation of the position 
assumed by senators, including Mr. Harding himself, who voted 
for the league of nations covenant with Americanizing reserva- 
tions. It shows that Senator Harding will approach the problem 
immediately after his inauguration with a view to working it out 
along the lines of the fundamental principles he states, in the 
light of conditions as they then exist. 

It is of interest in this connection to recall the reservations 
proposed by Senator Lodge and supported in whole or in part not 
only by the Republican majority in the Senate but by some twcnty- 

176 



AMERICANISM 

one members of the Democratic minority. In substance, they were 
as follows: 

1. The United States shall be the sole judge of whether or not 
it has fulfilled all obligations essential to withdrawal under the 
first article. The Wilson-Cox position is that the council of the 
league should, by this power of determination, have the right to 
hold the United States in the league indefinitely, and regardless 
of any unfavorable development in its operations. 

2. The United States assumes no obligations under Article X 
for the em.ployment of its militaiy and naval forces without the 
consent of Congress. Opposition to this reservation by Wilson and 
Cox indicates that they object to permitting Congress to be the 
arbiter in this matter, and would leave with a council dominated 
by aliens in Geneva the right to order American boys to war any- 
v\^here in the world. 

3. No mandate shall be accepted by the United States govern- 
ment except by approval of Congress. The Wilson-Cox opposition 
to this reservation indicates that they would give to an American 
President or representative in the league council the right to 
assume such responsibilities anywhere in the world on behalf of 
the United States. 

4. The United States reserves the right to determine what ques- 
tions are of a domestic character. The Wilson-Cox position, as 
shov/n by opposition to this reservation, is that a council of aliens 
should determine what matters of alleged domestic concern it 
may undertake to regulate even over our protest. 

5. The United States Vvili not submit to arbitration or inquiry 
questions depending upon or relating to the Monroe Doctrine. By 
opposing this reservation the Cox-Wilson Democracy indicates 
that it stands ready to reopen the Monroe Doctrine and let Europe 
determine what it does or does not mean. 

6. The United States withholds its assent to the provisions of 
the treaty relative to Shantung. This provision of the treaty is 
the most infamous piece of intei'national theft in history. It 
seizes the Chinese province of Shantung with 40,000,000 people 
and hands it over to the empire of Japan, although China was our 
ally in the World war and came into the struggle at our urgent 
invitation. The Cox-Wilson Democracy, and its supporters, stand 
for approval of the shame of Shantung. 

7. The Congress of the United States will provide by law for 
the appointment of all representatives of the United States in the 
council and assembly of the league of nations and the various 
commissions. The Cox-Wilson Democracy objects to this reserva- 
tion and would put the power to commit America to anything in 
the league council or assembly into the hands of the one man 
who happens to be the chief executive of the United States at 
the time. 

8. The United States understands that the reparation commis- 

177 



AMERICANISM 

sion will interfere with the trade of the United States with (Jer- 
many only as the American Congress approves. The Cox-Wilson 
Democracy would turn over to a council composed of representa- 
tives of our great trade rivals the determination of what we may 
not do in Germany commercially. Already that power has been 
used to our disadvantage. 

9. There is to be no obligation upon the United States for ex- 
penses of the league except upon the authorization of Congress. 
The Cox- Wilson Democracy objects to this, and would permit a 
congi'ess of aliens to make any charges upon the United States 
Treasury it may like. 

10. Whenever the United States is threatened with invasion the 
United States reserves the right to increase its armament. The 
Cox-Wilson Democracy would render the United States helpless 
to defend itself against invasion if forbidden to act by a council 
dominated by aliens, and possibly acting in the interests of our 
enemies. 

11. The United States reserves the right to permit its individual 
citizens to maintain commercial relations with individuals in na- 
tions put under the international boycott by the league of nations. 
The Cox-Wilson position is that the council of the league of na- 
tions should be pennitted to override Congress in this matter. 

12. Nothing in Articles 296, 297 relating to debts and property 
rights shall be taken to sanction any illegal act or act in contraven- 
tion of the rights of citizens of the United States. The Cox-Wilson 
Democracy would leave the decision of this matter to a council 
sitting in Geneva. 

13. The United States withholds its assent to the labor pro- 
visions of the treaty, except in so far as Congress may hereafter 
provide for American representation in the organization to be 
established under tenns of our o\\ti formulation. The Cox.Wilson 
Congress would tura over the control of American labor to a 
council of aliens, without pemiitting the American Congi^ess to 
define the terms of our participation in what many liberal minded 
men think would develop into one of the most objectionable and 
oppressive institutions of the proposed world government. 

14. The United States assumes no obligation to be bound by any 
decision of the league in which any member of the league with its 
dependencies casts more votes than the United States. The Cox- 
Wilson Democracy is in favor of the United States exercising one- 
sixth as much influence in the assembly of the league of nations 
as one other power represented. 

After going over these resen^ations, which of them is objection- 
able to any real American? If they are not essential to the pro- 
tection of American rights in the various matters covered, the 
worst that can be said of them is that they are superfluous. If 
they are essential for the protection of these rights, then what 
right resei'ved by them would you, as an American, whether Re- 

178 



AMERICANISM 

publican or Democrat, sacrifice ? Do you see any excuse for mak- 
ing- the proposal of these reservations the basis of refusal to accept 
the leag-ue covenant and return it to Europe for approval ? If not, 
then you stand with the Republican party, and against the Demo- 
cratic party, on this great issue. 
—August 21, 1920. 

Mother of a mighty race. 
Yet lovely in thy youthful grace ! 
Tlie elder dames, thy haughty peers, 
Admire and hate thy blooming years. 

With words of shame 
And taunts of scorn they join thy name. 

For on thy cheeks the glow is spread 
That tints thy morning hills with red; 
Thy steiD — the wild-deer's rustling feet 
Within thy woods are not more fleet ; 

Thy hopeful eye 
Is bright as thine own sunny sky. 

Ay, let them rail — those haughty ones, 

While safe thou dwellest with thy sons. 

They do not know how loved thou ai*t, 

How many a fond and fearless heart 

\^'ould rise to throw 

Its life between thee and the foe. 
***** 

O fair young mother! on thy brow 
Shall sit a nobler grace than now. 
Deep in the brightness of the skies 
The thronging years in glory rise, 

And, as they fleet. 
Drop strength and riches at thy feet. 

Thine eye, with every coming hour, 
Shall brighten, and thy form shall tower; 
And when thy sisters, elder born, 
Would brand thy name witli words of scora, 

Before thine eye, 
Upon their lips the taunt shall die. 

—William Cullen Bryant. 

Patriotism, pure and undefiled, is the handmaid of religion Love 
of country is twin to the love of God. The instinct of love of 
country, of patriotism, dwelling in eveiy human breast, is the 
abiding and unchangeable source of ev^ry nation's strength and 

179 



A^IERICANISM 

safety and the inspiration of the most enlightened civilization has 
been the inspiration of all the people of the earth through all the 
ages : "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." Strong as love of 
country is instinctively, it can, by cultivation, be made stronger 
in each individual and thus become a source of greater national 
strength. It is a part of the education and experience of a true 
man and of the real business of life that he should be a patriot. 
The instinct of the love of country is as natural as the parental 
or filial love or as the attachment for home. As the bird returns 
to the nest, so every fiber of a well-educated and well-developed 
man swells in sympathy with associations of family, home, com- 
munity, state or nation. No man liveth to himself and no man 
dieth to himself. There can be no well-rounded character in self- 
ish individualism. — Chief Justice Hay Brown, of the Pennsylvania 
Supreme Court. 

The vital lines of cleavage among our people do not correspond 
and indeed run at right angles to the lines of cleavage which divide 
occupation from occupation, which divide wage earners from cap- 
italists, fanners from bankers, men of small means from men of 
large means, men who live in the towns from men who live in the 
country ; for the vital line of cleavage is the line which divides the 
honest man who tries to do well by his neighbor from the dishon- 
est man who does ill by his neighbor. 

It is the man's moral quality, his attitude toward the gi-eat 
questions which concern all humanity, his cleanliness of life, his 
power to do his duty toward himself and toward others which 
really count; and if we substitute for the standard of personal 
judgment which treats each man according to his merits another 
standard in accordance with which men of one class are favored 
and all men of another class discriminated against we shall do 
irreparable damage to the body politic. 

I believe our people are too sane, too self-respecting, too fit for 
self-government ever to adopt such an attitude. This government 
is not and never shall be government by a plutocracy. This gov- 
ernment is not and never shall be government by a mob. — Theo- 
dore Roosevelt. 

Those heroes are dead. They died for libertj^ — they died for us. 
They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under 
the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad 
hemlocks, the tearful willows and the embracing vines. They 
sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine 
or of storm, each in the windowless Palace of Rest. Earth may 
run red with other wars — they are at peace. In the midst of 
battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death. 
I have one sentiment for soldiers, living and dead: Cheers for the 
living; tears for the dead.,— Robert G. Ingersoil. 

180 



TRYING AN OLD SWINDLE IN A NEW WAY 

The Republican party does not stand in this campaign for a 
selfish, isolated, unsympathetic nationalism, even invoked in behalf 
of such a republic as is ours. It is pledged to go as far in inter- 
national cooperation for world justice and world peace as we can 
go without the sacrifice of American rights, interests, ideals and 
secuiity. The man or the party that would go further is insuffi- 
ciently American. The Bible says that the man who does not 
look after the welfare of his own household is worse than an 
infidel. The man who is willing to take chances on the welfare 
of his own country and his own countrymen merely in order that 
he may experiment with some theory of world government is less 
than a patriot and good citizen. 

Any man has the right to make any sacrifice he wishes in behalf 
of others. That sort of sacrifice is noble, even when blindly or 
foolishly made. But the American citizen who is willing to sacri- 
fice the safety of his country and countrymen in behalf of some 
preconceived theory of his own is not half so noble and self-sacri- 
ficing as he claims to be. He is a patriot after the pattern of 
Artemas Ward, "Determined to put down the rebellion even at the 
sacrifice of all his wife's relations." When some of the big talk 
that is heard in high places about being "unselfish" in our attitude 
toward the rest of the world is analyzed, we find it akin to that of 
the man who sits on the pier and talks eloquently to his wife about 
her duty to jump into the ocean and save a bystander who has 
fallen into ttie water. 

Just as Republicans believed and said in 1916 that President 
Wilson's policies were not keeping us out but getting us into war, 
so they say nov/ that the un-Americanized treaty and covenant, 
with Article X requiring the American people to send soldiers into 
every war that may begin anywhere in the world, is not a device to 
bring peace to this" land, but to put it perpetually in the shadow of 
war. The league of nations as it was written at Paris is a com- 
bination of imperialism and communism. It represents imperial- 
istic expansion and aggression by some of the powers, but so far 
as this country is concerned it represents sacrifice of our safety, 
our interests, our rights and our ideals. 

The Republican party stands where Theodore Roosevelt stood 
in the matter of a league of nations. It stands for a league of 
justice as contrasted with this proposed league of force. It stands 
for the protection of the right of this nation to cling to its own 

181 



AMERICANISM 

institutions and ideals. Not a resei-vation was proposed by Repub- 
licans in the Senate giving to this nation the right of aggression 
against any other nation, the right to take from any other nation 
what belongs to it. The reservations adopted by the senate, and 
to which President Wilson was so much opposed that he killed the 
league and treaty rather than accept them, safeguard things that 
have been considered fundamental in Americanism from the days 
of the founding of this republic. 

The Republican party is not responsible for the failure of a 
league of nations. For that, one wilful man is wholly responsible, 
because he insisted upon misrepresenting his country at Paris and 
then tried to coerce a coordinate branch of the national govera- 
ment into a betrayal of the duty it was swoni to perform. With 
him it was the Wilson league or nothing; he would not yield an 
inch to any plan for safeguarding America in the adoption of the 
covenant and treaty. Governor Cox says he is absolutely one with 
Mr. Wilson. This means that if Mr. Cox is elected there will be 
a resumption of the fight for the adoption of the un-Americanized 
covenant. The end of such a contest is certain because it is now 
sure that at least one-third of the membership of the next Senate 
will be opposed to any league scheme which puts America last, and 
in the destruction of what this nation stands for, would kill the 
world's last and best hope of the rule of justice throughout the 
world rather than the sway of force. This is the issue as it stands. 
Every man who wants to make the world safe for America must 
cast his ballot against those who think of this republic last, if ever, 
when they begin to develop their ambitious plans for the world's 
reconstruction. 
—August 21, 1920. 



Many of our citizens, including statesmen and soldiers who had 
been pre-eminent in acliieving our independence, were bent that 
we should render to republican France some aid much more effica- 
cious than sympathy. But there were others who looked into the 
veiy seeds of time. They remembered that the colonial system 
which they had lately overthrown was a vast and entangling for- 
eign relation ; that the tie which held it to the motherland was a 
tie that lacerated while it bound; that this country, by reason of 
that relation, had been invaded by enemies of the parent state. 
They saw that alliances with any European power, as to matters of 
European concern, "ivere the same thing as their previous condition 
under another name, and that the consequences would be the same. 

No one saw all this more clearly than Washington. In his fare- 
w^ell addi'ess — that political testament by which he bequeathed 
to posterity an imperishable legacy of wisdom — he detennined 
our policy as to European nations by a few sentences which cannot 
be read too often, or reflected upon too deeply. — Cuslmian K. Davis. 

182 



SOME OF THE BULWARKS OF 
AMERICAN FREEDOM 

A scholarly New England publicist has written for a current 
magazine an attack upon the Senate for attempting to share with 
the Pi'esident responsibility in the formulation of the peace treaty 
and league of nations covenant. In his criticism of the American 
Constitution for giving to the Senate such large power over treaty 
making, this able administration spokesman attacks as undemo- 
cratic the principle of state representation in the Senate. Why, 
he asks indignantly, should Nebraska have no more representation 
than Nevada in the Senate? Such constitutional inconsistencies, 
he intimates, prevent this country from having a genuinely popular 
government like that of England. In the United Kingdom, by the 
way, and in the European countries generally, public sentiment had 
about as much to do with the peace treaty's provisions as it has 
to do with elections in Mississippi or any other state where the 
Democratic oligarchy really runs things. 

All this talk is in connection with an attack upon the Senate 
for failing to swallow whole the league of nations covenant as it 
was cooked up at Paris! And what does that covenant provide? 
That in the council of the league a few chosen powers constitute 
the entire governing body, excluding from the deliberations of a 
Senate undertaking to regulate the affairs of the world a vast ma- 
jority of the people even of those nations which have subscribed 
to the covenant. Each power, according to the friends of the 
Wilson league, having the right to defeat the decisions of all the 
rest! It provides that in the assembly of the league the United 
States would have the same representation as Hayti, Santo Do- 
mingo, Colombia, Salvador or Costa Rica! Of course Franklin 
Roosevelt has explained this by saying that through the use of 
the bayonet we can control the votes of a half dozen of the little 
republics "represented" in the assembly! On the other hand, 
Great Britain is to have six votes in the assembly as against one 
for any other nation ; one for India, for instance, where the people 
■will have about as much to say about their representation as the 
negroes of South Carolina have to do with state government under 
their peculiar form of Wilsonian self-detei"mination of peoples. Yet 
India is to have the same representation as the United States! 
If there is inequality in state representation in the Senate, denun- 
ciation of the injustice comes with poor grace from the defenders 

183 



AMERICANISM 

of the form of world government provided in the covenant of the 
league of nations. 

Some of those whose admiration for European forms of govern- 
ment has weakened their appreciation of the American Constitu- 
tion, ought to look to it that some of the superior virtues they per- 
ceive in parliamentary government should be embedded in the con- 
stitution of the super-state they are trying to shove over on the 
people of the United States. If the Senate is to be attacked for 
participating in treaty making, it ought to be shown that its inter- 
ference is against, rather than in behalf, of the liberalization of 
the proposed super-govemment. Moreover, when the Senate is 
arraigned as misrepresentative of public sentiment, better evi- 
dence that it has defied public opinion in Americanizing the league 
of nations covenant should be produced than the mere bald asser- 
tion of the attacking special pleader. The election result of 1918, 
in the face of President Wilson's demand that he be given creden- 
tials as the sole representative of American sentiment at the 
peace conference, with its adverse plurality of a million votes, does 
not bear out the contention that Mr. Wilson is always old Vox 
Populi. 

The real truth is that in the present emergency in the life of 
the republic the United States Senate has magnificently vindicated 
the belief of the founders of this republic, some of whom were 
almost as wise as their modern critics, that arbitrary power to 
determine the very destiny of the nation should not be lodged in 
the hands of one man, even one so much wiser and better than all 
his predecessors as the present inspired incumbent of the Presi- 
dency admits himself to be. The crisis has demonstrated that 
deliberation and debate are not out of place in a free government. 
The one legislative body in the world in which the peace treaty 
and covenant have been actually debated has been the United 
States Senate. The one nation in the world in which the people 
have discussed this question and in which popular sentiment has 
had anything to do with its determination, is the United States 
of America. Despite the overshadowing importance of the issue 
this is the one country in which the general public has studied 
and debated it. 

The league of nations covenant was put through the assemblage 
of representatives of the victorious belligerents at Paris, without 
deliberation or debate, at the end of an hour's session during 
which even the asking of questions was shut off. It was not sub- 
mitted to the legislative representatives, much loss to the people 
themselves, of any nation. It was thiust upon a world under the 
methods of a strong-arm ward caucus, with the order to "take it 
or let it alone." Here was a m.ilitary council, convened without 
any authority to formulate a world government, "saving the world 
for democracy" by attempting final action upon a scheme of world 
government. It was as if George Washington and his generals 

184 



AMERICANISM 

had wiitten a constitution for the United States at Yorktown, 
and told the several colonies that it was not their province to 
either initiate or amend, but only to accept in toto the scheme of 
government they had devised, otherwise the new government 
would bind them anyway and they would be treated as outcasts 
by their allies in the Revolutionary war! 

It was because we had a Senate in this country that American 
public sentiment was brought to bear upon the treaty and cove- 
nant. It was the Senate that made it possible for the American 
people to inform themselves as to the provisions and implications 
of the treaty, without waiting for the rude awakening which has 
come to the rest of the world as to the real meaning of much of 
what was written into this most colossal failure in peace-making 
the world has ever witnessed. Possibly the treaty and covenant 
might have been rushed through a larger legislative body, like the 
House of Representatives, under the whip and spur of a few lead- 
ers and the five minute debate rule. But it is a fundamental safe- 
guard of free government that the people should think first, and 
act afterward, rather than that, in such important matters, they 
should act in haste and repent at leisure. 

Despite the assertions of those who contend that a European 
parliamentary election is the climax of democracy, and that the 
checks and balances of the republican form of government are 
handicaps to popular control of public affairs, the truth is that 
judging from the actual workings of the system rather than the 
theoretical imaginings of scholarly commentarians, we have the 
only government in the world guided by mass opinion. European 
governments are controlled today, not by mass opinion, but by 
certain group interests temporarily coalesced, each one of which 
is thinking, not of the general welfare, but of class or race ad- 
vantage. This is the inevitable result of the parliamentary system 
of government as contrasted with representative republican gov- 
ernment. 

In this republic alone, of all the nations of the world, we repeat, 
there has been dissection and analysis and discussion of the pro- 
posed treaty and league covenant. Here, and nowhere else, the 
right and the wrong, for instance, of the Shantung decision, the 
greatest piece of political larceny in the world's history, has been 
talked of and understood by milHons of people. Here, and nowhere 
else in the world, the great issues involved in the momentous 
decision involved in acceptance of the proposed world constitu- 
tion, have been the subjects of discussion in the homes, the shops, 
on the fanns, in the market places; just as the Constitution was 
discussed in the days of Washington, and again in the days of 
Marshall, of Webster and of Lincoln. And this great debate, with 
"the solemn referendum" of the present campaign, has proceeded 
over the protests of men and elements pretending devotion to 
democracy and professing to find in the insistence of the American 

185 



AMERICANISM 

Senate upon the protection of American rights, interests and 
ideals in the tei-ms of that covenant, only the machinations of an 
oligarchy ! 

Let every lover of human liberty thank God that, after all, 
there is one country in the world in which lav/s and institutions 
are not accepted from the hands of autocrats and super-men as 
if they were tablets from Mt. Sinai. Most of the world's wars 
have resulted from the failure of the people who fight and pay for 
the wars to subject the decisions of their diplomats to sufficient 
scrutiny and accounting. The professional workers in the secret 
council chambers of Europe, where diplomats gloss over selfish 
schemes of national and personal aggi'andizement with the veneer 
of altiuism, and di\ade up the world to the slow music of fine 
phrases, can put their stuff over on European peasantiy all dressed 
up in the habiliments of a mock democracy they do not know how 
to use. But in this great reading, thinking land of America, where 
issues are fought out in the open forum of public opinion, it is 
necessary to support any project affecting the destiny of this 
nation and of the world with something more than high-sounding 
talk, even when backed up by the great world-wide instrumentali- 
ties of propaganda which the people of this country have learned, 
and the people of the rest of the world are learning, are only 
gigantic falsehood factories, operated in behalf of the concealed 
puiposes of certain powers and international commercial and finan- 
cial groups. 

Yes, independence and freedom and popular government are 
something more than phrases here. Democracy is a reality and 
not a mere phrase with which to tickle the ears of the groundlings. 

The founders of this republic built mighty bulwarks for the pro- 
tection of free institutions when they created that trinity of repub- 
licanism, — the Congress, with its two chambers representing di- 
rectly the people individually and in their collective capacity as 
states; the judiciary, to stand between the people and violation 
of their resei-ved personal and property rights by the power of 
government, and the executive, to take the initiative in foreign 
relations and to see to it that the laws be executed. 

Whoever would tear down this fabric in any part is no true 
republican. 

Whoever would subordinate this one real government of public 
opinion, this one actual, workable people's nation, to any super- 
state dominated by governments out of harmony in their purposes 
with the republic Washington established, Lincoln presei-ved and 
the Senate of the United States has saved, is lacking in comprehen- 
sion of the fundamentals of Americanism, or has succumbed to 
the seductions of alien propaganda. 
-^September 4, 1920. 



186 



THE DECISIVE BATTLE 

The decisive battle in the last war for American independence 
will be fought five weeks from next Tuesday. 

The LAST war, because if the decision by ballot is that which 
Americans have before effected by the bullet, the freedom of 
America to pursue her own way, untrammelled, in the achieve- 
ment of her own destiny, free from European domination, will 
never again be challenged. 

The American colonists revolted in 1775, and declared their na- 
tional independence in 1776, because they objected to having their 
affairs directed from a political capital across the Atlantic, in an 
environment totally different from that whiph they had created 
here. 

Our Revolutionary forefathers objected to furnishing men and 
money in wars, the result of European controversies, with which 
they had no natural concern. So long as the western hemisphere 
was a mere exploited area of European colonialism, it was involved 
in every European war. A family quarrel among European mon- 
archs sent Virginia and Massachusetts soldiers upon forays into 
Canada, and set savages to scalping white settlers on the unpro- 
tected borders of the colonies. 

It was to end the reign of Europeanism in the territory of the 
United Colonies that European soldiers were fired on at Lexington, 
and the war for independence thus begun was fought to its tri- 
umphant conclusion. 

One of the objects of the Revolution was political, the other 
industrial, independence. In colonial days America was looked 
upon by her European masters as a legitimate object of commercial 
exploitation for the benefit, not of the colonists, but of Europe. 
In the repression of American industrial production, trade and 
shipping, our European masters went to unbelievable lengths. 
After the political independence of the United States had been 
achieved, the effort continued to keep America under the industrial 
domination of Europe. The United States was required to act as 
a subject nation on the oceans. To procure the freedom of the 
seas the War of 1812, — the second war for American independence, 
was fought, and while the immediate result was indecisive, the 
struggle strengthened the determination of Americans to be in 
fact, as in name, "free and independent states." 

The men who wTote the Declaration and achieved American 
independence realized that Europeanism and Americanism could 

187 



AMERICANISM 

not live side by side, that the American continents could not re- 
main "half slave and half free" in their relation to European im- 
perialism. So, when the European yoke was being thrown off by 
Mexico, Central Ameiica and South America, the Monroe Doc- 
trine w^as enunciated. This was notice served upon Europe that 
this hemisphere could not be made a field for European coloniza- 
tion, with the consequent transfer to the new world of the Euro- 
pean sjT'stem. The Monroe Doctrine was necessary to supplement 
American independence and the Washington-Jefferson doctrine of 
American non-entanglement in the age-old feuds of Europe. 

The Wilson league of nations is a device for the sacrifice of 
American independence and the annullment of the Monroe Doc- 
trine ; for bringing the whole world under the domination of Euro- 
peanism. It is a plan for the transfer to the United States and 
to the whole western hemisphere of the European system which 
our forefathers poured out their blood and treasure to drive across 
the Atlantic. It was devised by European politicians who have 
never ceased to cast envious eyes upon the western hemisphere 
as an area for working out the purposes the European nations 
have invariably followed in Africa and Asia, where there has been 
no people strong enough to maintain continental self-detennina- 
tion. It has been accepted by American politicians of recent Euro- 
pean origin, close European relationships and sympathies, who are 
lacking in comprehension of and faith in American fundamentals. 
Some of them are honestly mistaken, having succumbed to Euro- 
pean "culture," and some are agents of Europeanism as surely so 
as were those a European power maintained in this country a cen- 
tury ago devising and appljdng means for throttling American 
commerce, stifling American industry and plotting American divi- 
sion and destruction. 

The National Republican was perhaps the first paper of national 
circulation to begin warfare upon the Wilsonian scheme of sacri- 
ficing the identity of America in a world merger ; of trading Amer- 
ican control of American destiny for minority stock in a world 
political coi-poration. This paper deduced the pui-poses of Presi- 
dent Wilson from his declarations during the European war, and 
the week the armistice v/as signed The National Republican gave 
warning that Mr. Wilson's object was to sacrifice American nation- 
ality to alienism and internationalism. From that day to this The 
National Republican has made uncompromising war against the 
plan to denationalize America, and to sacrifice American ideals, 
rights and interests to a paper scheme of world government dom- 
inated by influences out of sympathy with the fundamentals of 
Americanism, and during that period has stated many times the 
fundamental wrongs and errors of the Wilson covenant. But as 
this last battle for American independence approaches, it will not 
be out of place to review briefly the more important objections to 
the acceptance of the un-Americanized league. 

188 



AJVIERICANISM 

The covenant of the league of nations was unconstitutionally- 
framed. It represents usurpation of authority by a civil-military 
conference whose only proper function, under our form of gov- 
ernment, was to write a peace treaty and settle the issues of the 
war. Failure to promptly do this duty has cost the world almost 
as much as the war itself. The covenant was interwoven in the 
peace treaty and thrust upon even the peace conference itself in 
arbitrary European fashion, without opportunity being given to 
most of those affected by it for either debate or decision. In the 
formulation of a world constitution President Wilson usurped 
legislative power not transferable to him under the American 
Constitution. It was as if Washington and his generals had under- 
taken to write a constitution for the colonies at Yorktown and to 
force it upon the American people. This does not fully suggest 
the odiousness of the usui-pation, because in the case of Mr. Wilson 
he allowed representatives of alien powers to dictate, directly and 
indirectly, the provisions of this world constitution that was to 
bind this republic. When he brought it home it was a violation of 
every principle he had proclaimed as America's pui-pose during and 
subsequent to the war, as well as of the fundamentals of historic 
Americanism. 

This usurpation abroad was followed by attempted usuii)ation at 
home when President Wilson sought to deny to the Senate a coor- 
dinate treaty making body, the right to consider his proposed world 
constitution, revolutionary in its influence upon American institu- 
tions and American destiny, apart from the peace treaty itself. 
This resulted in the continuance of a technical state of war, and of 
the unprecedented and in many respects unconstitutional war-time 
powers of the President. It resulted in vast injury to the interests 
of this nation and of the world in general. 

Indeed, President Wilson earned his usurpation to the point of 
attempting to deny to the Senate its constitutional right of advis- 
ing and consenting in the formulation of treaties. Refusing to 
yield an inch to the convictions of senators, bound under the Con- 
stitution they had sworn to uphold and protect, to see to it that 
their country was not sacrificed by any international convention, 
he and his followers have sought to coerce a Senate majority into 
action against its conscience and judgment. During all this time 
the physical and mental condition of the President has remained, 
through the course followed by his friends and followers, a subject 
of conjecture hei^ and abroad. 

The peace treaty itself sows the seeds of future war by parcel- 
ling out among certain victorious powers millions of square miles 
of tenitory and scores of millions of subject peoples, not to men- 
tion billions of dollars in indemnities. The treaty and the covenant 
provide the means of ensuring the pei*manency of these spoils of 
war, and make the United States, which has wanted and received 
no temtory, trade advantage or indemnity, the principal, because 

189 



AMERICANISM 

the richest and strongest, guarantor of these war gains. Under 
the treaty as brought home by President Wilson this republic even 
approves the substitution of a Japanese for a Prussian invader in 
the richest province of the republic of China, a republic formed 
in emulation of our own, which went into war at our instance in 
the belief that this nation would continue to be the steadfast friend 
of justice in the Orient. This vast acquisition of war gains, with 
its underwriting not only by the powers which profit by them, but 
by this country which asks and gets nothing material out of the 
war, is the fundamental basis of the peace treaty, the commissions 
created under it, and of the league of nations itself. 

The league of nations covenant provides for the rule of the 
world by force, through a world parliament of two chambei's, in 
which we have one vote out of seven in one body, and in the other 
have as many votes as Hayti and Santo Domingo, Salvador and 
Honduras, but one-sixth as many as the British Empire, which 
has a smaller self-governing population than the United States. 
It does not provide for disarmament, except of the central em- 
pires, or even provide the means whereby disarmament may be 
brought about without the general consent which could effect it 
tomorrow without the intervention of a league. No concealment 
is made of the fact that while the chief military power of the world 
has been destroyed, the chief naval power will maintain its mas- 
tery of the seas. This preparation for war recognizes the inev- 
itability of war by the great nation which, with its world-wide 
relationships, will necessarily be the dominating factor in the pro- 
posed world government. 

Article X, which President Wilson has described as "the heart 
of the covenant," binds this republic in language as clear as has 
ever been used in a public document, to furnish men and money 
to defend the boundaries of nations as defined in the peace treaty, 
and to intervene by force in any war to which we are committed 
by the league of nations. No amount of denial will change the 
fact that this is the clear provision of the treaty. The objections 
made to a declaration by the Senate in the form of a reservation, 
that this country will not go into any war except by act of Con- 
gress, prove that the framers of the covenant know that the cove- 
nant binds us to participation in every war that may occur in the 
world. Otherwise they would not object to the resei*vation. 

Other provisions of the covenant, especially the labor clauses, 
involve this country in a world-wide financial, industrial and labor 
communism from which v/e could gain nothing and through which 
we might be called upon to sacrifice much. In his famous Four- 
teen points, the chief proponent of the Wilson covenant declared 
that one of his objects was to bring about universal free trade and 
an equality of economic conditions among nations. These pro- 
visions of the covenant lead to the object of a world-wide leveling 

.190 



AMERICANISM 

of conditions. With some of the world it might mean leveling up ; 
with us it would be leveling down. 

The assumption of those who declare that the rest of the world 
wants peace and justice and good will among men, and is ready 
to disarm and dwell in brotherhood as one great happy family, is 
either an ignorant or an audacious denial of the most palpable 
facts. Such a theory in the present course of European and Asiatic 
powers encounters a thousand flat contradictions. The United 
States is the only powerful nation in the world that has up to this 
time developed an altruistic international policy. To go into a com- 
bination dominated by selfish, grasping powers, and their tools and 
pawns among the smaller nations, would be to sacrifice this nation's 
world-wide influence as an exemplar of free government and of 
fair treatment of other nations. It would involve us in the en- 
tanglements of European intrigue, with our own politics torn by 
constant conflict based upon the alien partisanship aroused in our 
polyglot politicians through the subordination of domestic to for- 
eign issues. 

Those who declare that Republican opposition to American sub- 
ordination in a world league of force is based upon mere selfish 
nationalism either intentionally misrepresent the Republican atti- 
tude or are incapable of comprehending the fundamental American 
ideals upon which that opposition is based. When Governor Cox 
says that he sees no difference between the doctrine "America 
First" and that of "Deutschland Ueber Alles" he merely confesses 
that he cannot comprehend the difference between what America 
stands for and what imperial Germany stood for under the Kaiser. 
Republicans believe not in "America above all," but in "America 
before all" in the minds and hearts of Americans; and in this 
they think of America as an instrumentality of world-wide service 
to the cause of human liberty, as America has always been from 
the beginning. Republicans believe in a league of justice, a world 
court with its decisions based upon equity as defined in an ampli- 
fied code of international lav/ to which all nations shall pledge 
their allegiance ; not a world government parallel with or superior 
to our own, with decisions by legislative representatives of the 
governments of the world, based upon interest rather than upon 
generally accepted basic principles of right. 

Europeanism and Americanism are fundamentally at variance. 
Europeanism stands for that sepai-ateness in language, dialect, 
dress, race, religion and locality which has made Europe a crazy 
quilt geographically, and through religious, racial and dynastic 
antagonisms, the fruitage of centuries of circumstances beyond 
our influence or control, has kept that continent a bloody cockpit 
of nations for centuries. These conflicts have only been accentu- 
ated by the crowding process which has come with the improve- 
ment of means of transportation and communication. Internally 
these nations preserve the stratification of class and caste; their 

191 



AMERICANISM 

governments are dominated by groups and combinations of groupsj 
composed of class conscious elements filled with a hatred that 
frequently blazes into conflict, because of which public order can 
be maintained only by force. Americanism stands for the blending 
of European races, classes, religions, nationalities, into one homo- 
geneous whole, in accordance with our national motto: "Out of 
many, one." During the entire European v/ar, with millions of 
people within our borders repiesenting all the nations in conflict, 
there was no clash between Greeks and Bulgarians, Italians and 
Austrians, Turks and Serbians. Federation has solved in this re- 
public problems which in Europe seem hopeless. Vv^e believe in 
America, too, that the general welfare should be the sole object of 
national legislation and administration. Those who seek to set up 
class government here, are agents of Europeanism incapable of 
comprehending American fundamentals. No man who seeks to 
place the selfish interests of a group or class or section above the 
general interests of the whole public, is a good American. He is 
tainted with Europeanism, and the sort of politics which is based 
upon group or class or caste demands is a European importation. 
A few only of the important objections to American acceptance 
of the un-Americanized covenant have been mentioned. Are they 
not enough to prove that the United States should have the right 
to specify the terms upon which we will enter into a world-wide 
government ? Should we commit ouiselves, irrevocably, and with- 
out leaving an easy means of escape, to an experiment which haz- 
ards what Americans hold dear and which has been and is of so 
much value to the entire world, — independent American nation- 
ality, with its policy of disinterested friendship for all nations, 
alliance or combination with none? 
—September 25, 1920. 

|c=30E=:>l 

The argument that tlie Monroe Doctrine can have no validity 
because it has never received legislative sanction, carries with it 
no weight. Many mles of international law impose an obligation 
derived fi-om usage alone. The original declaration of Mr. Monroe 
is a precedent — acknowledged by the American people, and to a 
certain extent acquiesced in by European authoiities. Hardly a 
President since Mr. Monroe has omitted to refer to it in language 
of approval. It has always been regarded as a question independ- 
ent of party politics, save perhaps in its application to the Con- 
gress at Panama. It has been persistently asserted by the ma- 
jority of American statesmen; and to declare that it cannot obtain 
as a universal obligation is practically to throw discredit upon 
Washington's farewell address, whose recommendations, though 
never embodied in statutes or approved by resolution of Congress, 
have frequently shaped the foreign and domestic policy of the gov- 
ernment. — George F. Tucker, 1885. 

192 



PRESIDENT WILSON TO HIS 
*TELLOW-COUNTRYMEN»' 

A man may know the Bible by heart and still be an infidel. 
President Wilson's assertion, in his latest campaigrn letter, that he 
is better able to interpret Americanism than others are because 
he has spent his life in the study of American history, is not con- 
vincing. 

A man may know all about American history and still be some- 
thing less than a thoroughly indoctrinated American. President 
Wilson's study of American institutions has, confessedly, con- 
vinced him that some European forms of government, at least, 
are better than our own. Study of American and European au- 
thorities, admittedly, has Europeanized, not Americanized, him. 

The most unlettered man in this republic, possessed by the 
spirit of Americanism, is a better exponent of American ideals 
than the most scholarly student of histoiy and economics who 
has by that process become Europeanized. The man, illiterate or 
educated, who loves his own country better than he loves other 
nations, is a patriot. The man, illiterate or educated, who thinks 
it is a sign of narrowness to care more for his own land than he 
does for the world in general, is an internationalist. 

There is poison as well as healing in mere learning. "Much 
learning hath made him mad," is a Biblical phrase as full of mean- 
ing today as when it was uttered. Unfortunately all our institu- 
tions of higher education have not been wellsprings of patriotism. 
Some of them have done much to undermine the faith of youth in 
the institutions of their country and to substitute alien for Ameri- 
can ideals. 

It may be said, therefore, that President Wilson has not settled 
the argument about the league of nations v/hen he calls attention 
to the fact that he has studied American history more exhaus- 
tively than have most others, and therefore claims he is better 
qualified than are most others to say what Americanism is. It 
is not "audacious," as President Wilson claims, to suggest that 
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, James 
Monroe, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt were right in 
their views as to what constitutes real Americanism. If Woodrow 
Wilson is right, all these men were wrong, for what they estab- 
lished and preserved and maintained, Mr. Wilson, with his un- 

193 



AMERICANISM 

Americanized league of nations covenant, would jeopardize and 
possibly destroy. 

The men who established and preserved this republic were not 
Prussian in spirit, as President Wilson charges, because they be- 
lieved, as they did, in the doctrine of America first. There is a 
world of difference between the Prussian doctrine of "Germany 
above all" and the traditional American motto of "America before 
all" in the minds and hearts of Americans. No one knows better 
than does President Wilson that the other nations with whose 
representatives he sat at the Paris peace conference were thinking 
of their own governments first. The terms of the treaty of peace 
prove that. Every man of common sense knows that these nations 
are still thinking first of themselves, and it is only here, in this 
one country which asked and got nothing material out of the war, 
where the doctrine is being preached that it is our duty to sacrifice 
national rights, interests and ideals in order to convince humanity 
in general that we are really as unselfish as we are supposed to be. 

It is true, as President Wilson says, that the founding fathers 
thought of this nation as "the light of the world." But the men 
who cut this country loose from European domination, and sought 
to preserve it pei-manently from European entanglements, knew 
that this light would burn only in the untainted air of freedom. 
To carry the torch of Americanism across the Atlantic and expose 
it to the damps of European intrigue and conflict, without a change 
in the atmosphere, would be to extinguish the flame. A light 
house is of service only so long as it remains on its own founda- 
tions. To put it afloat at sea would be to destroy the beacon. "To 
set a responsible example to all the world of what free government 
is and can do for the maintenance of right standards" has indeed 
been the very mission which America has been perfoiTning all the 
way from George Washington to Woodrow Wilson. Now it is pro- 
posed by Mr. Wilson that we abandon this position as an exemplar 
of national righteousness, and go into political partnership, as 
minority stock holders, with all the rest of the world ; to lose our 
identity in a super-state dominated by nations whose ideals are 
as far from those the histoiy of our nation has exemplified, as 
Tokio is from Mt. Vernon. President Wilson says that failure to 
abandon the American tradition of independence — he calls it "iso- 
lation,"— would be to "relegate the United States to a subordinate 
role in the affairs of nations." Were we, as a nation, at the time 
Mr. Wilson came to the Presidency after a century and a tliird 
of the Washington policy, playing a subordinate role in the affairs 
of nations ? In the opinion of President Wilson, of course, we were 
at least playing second fiddle,— but what did the war disclose as 
to the physical and moral power of America in the midst of a 
world crisis? 

"Why should we be afraid of responsibilities which we are quali- 
fied to sustain?" inquires President Wilson. There are those who 

m 



AMERICANISM 

believe that it is not a sign of courage for any man to want to 
cause his country to abandon policies under which it has become 
the greatest nation in the world, and risk the very sovereignty of 
the republic through the national subordination involved in ac- 
ceptance of the league of nations covenant as President Wilson 
brought it home with him. The American people are not "afraid" 
of their responsibilities ; they were meeting them before President 
Wilson was boiTi and they will be discharging them long after the 
Wilson league is dead and buried. The American people will "live 
up to the great expectations which they created by entering the 
war." They brought the war to a triumphant conclusion. Alone 
among all the victorious powers they asked nothing by way of re- 
ward. What other expectations were reasonably entertained of 
them? That they would remain in Europe for all time to police 
and finance the forty or fifty nations, little and big, which consti- 
tute Europe's political crazy quilt, as some slight recompense for 
having spent billions of dollars, raised millions of troops, and 
sacrificed scores of thousands of lives in the cause of European civ- 
ilization ? 

There is a great deal of gabble like this about our "obligations" 
to Europe, but no one seems able to explain how the service and 
sacrifice involved in our thirty months of participation in the war 
made America the debtor of the allies, rather than the world the 
debtor of the United States, which did not ask for an inch of soil, 
a foot of shipping, or a dollar of indemnity while the other victo- 
rious powers divided up millions of square males of land, fleets of 
ships, and billions of dollars. Of ail the statements parroted in 
this country by mindless thinkers the claim that America owes 
Europe anything is by all odds the most asininely unpatriotic, be- 
cause idiotically unjust to the United States. 

"Surely we shall not fail to keep the promise sealed in the 
death and saciifice of our incomparable soldiers, sailors and ma- 
rines, who await our verdict beneath the soil of France." The reit- 
erated claim that the soldiers, sailors and marines v/ho died fight- 
ing on European soil under the American flag, fell for the Wilson 
league of nations is the grossest profanation. The Ameiicans who 
died in France fell long before the league of nations was hatched 
in secret conclave at Paris. The vast majority of the men who 
fought and survived repudiate in<iignantly the suggestion that 
they fought for Wilsonism rather than Americanism: that they 
fought to involve their country in the meshes of European mili- 
tarism and navalism, rather than to free their country from its 
menace. 

"Those who do not care to tell you the truth about tlie league 
of nations tell you that Article X of the covenant of the league 
would make it possible for other nations to lead us into war 
whether we willed it by our own independent judgment or not," 
continues President Vv'ilson, and adds: "This is absolutely false." 

105 



AMERICANISM 

Article X will be judged by the American people not on the 
basis of what President Wilson thinks it says, but by what they 
know^ it says. Article X says that the members of the league are 
committed to participation in the military and naval measures 
necessary to the enforcement of the decisions of the league. Con- 
gress might, it is true, refuse to cany out our obligation, but only 
by the sacrifice of the plighted faith of the nation. President 
Wilson has described this as being "only a moral obligation." But 
a moral obligation means as much to a nation jealous of its honor 
as a legal obligation. If Article X does not commit the American 
government to contribute military force for the execution of the 
decrees of the league, v/hy does President Wilson insist that a 
reservation setting forth clearly that this country will not be 
bound to do this except by the affirmative action of Congi'ess, is a 
blow at the heart of the covenant? Wliy depend upon the mere 
verbal assurances of President Wilson that the covenant means 
this or that, while he so stoutly protests against a plain statement 
of the limitations of our obligations under the contract we are 
asked to sign? 

President Wilson declares that the people "have been grossly 
misled with regard to the treaty, and particularly with regard to 
the proposed character of the league of nations, by those who 
have assumed the serious responsibility of opposing it." The ad- 
vantages of publicity in connection with the league of nations 
covenant and the treaty have all been with President Wilson and 
his partisans. The President enjoys the peculiar privilege of hav- 
ing his every statement quoted by practically every newspaper in 
the United States. Since President Wilson returned from Europe 
and abandoned the policy of secrecy which surrounded every step 
in the formulation of the treaty and covenant, his contentions 
with reference to the meaning and implications of the treaty and 
covenant have been published so widely that every citizen of the 
country has had opportunity to read his side of the case. Millions 
upon millions of dollars of public money has been spent in propa- 
ganda in behalf of the unexpurgated treaty and covenant. Educa- 
tional and religious agencies have been unsparingly used in the 
campaign to blot out the old standards of Americanism and sub- 
stitute for them the tenets of Wilson internationalism. Great 
financial interests, having much to gain by the pooling of world 
interests and the underwriting of European obligations with all 
of America's wealth and man power, have brought heavy pres- 
sure to bear upon the business interests of the country. For a 
time this vast machinery of propaganda seemed about to accom- 
plish its pui-pose. But here, and here alone among all the nations 
of the world, public questions are publicly debated and decided. 
Here, month after month, the tide of public protest has risen high- 
er and higher as the people have better and better comprehended 
the true inwardness of what it has been sought to put over on 

1% 



AMERICANISM 

them as a substitute for the old-fashioned Americanism that has 
maintained peace and prosperity in this free land while Europe 
and Asia have been suffering continuously the scourge of war, 
through deliberate failure and refusal to accept the ideals and 
institutions of which we have been, as President Wilson says, so 
long the exemplar. 

Yes, the American people "want tlieir country's honor vindicat- 
ed." They do not recognize the vagaries of President Wilson, 
pressed upon the Paris peace conference by an executive fresh 
from repudiation by the American people under the "great and 
solemn referendum" of 1918, as in any sense binding upon them; 
they do not consider the rejection of his program under their 
constitutional rights, as a sacrifice of "their country's honor." 
They deny that there is any v/arrant for such a pretension. 

"this election is to be a genuine national referendum." This 
statement of President Wilson's is fully warranted by the facts. 
The rumblings of that approaching referendum are already echo- 
ing. Georgia has spoken in the nomination, by the President's 
own party, of a bitter opponent of the Wilson brand of interna- 
tionalism as a candidate for United States senator. Maine has 
spoken by an unprecedented Republican plurality. The rest of the 
country is ready to vote. For the first time there will be an ex- 
pression on the commitments of the Wilson covenant by the one 
voice that is competent to bind the American people to any great 
national decision, — the voice of public opinion. The verdict will 
settle for all time, to the satisfaction of the world, the question of 
whether this is a government by one man or by a hundred million 
people. Even the author of President Wilson's campaign letter 
of 1920 will not be puzzled as to the meaning of the great referen- 
dum's result. 
—October 9, 1920. 

f^iorzDl 

At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By 
what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some 
trans- Atlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a 
blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa com- 
bined with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in 
their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could 
not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track in the 
Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. 

At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? 
I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us ; it can- 
not come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must our- 
selves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we 
must live through all time or die by suicide. 

I hope I am over wary ; but if I am not, there is even now some- 
thing of evil omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard 

197 



AMERICANISM 

for law which pervades the country — the growing disposition to 
substitute the wild and furious passions in lieu of the sober judg- 
ment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the executive 
ministers of justice. * * * 

The answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of liber- 
ty, eveiy well-wisher of his posterity, swear by the blood of the 
revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the 
country, and never to tolerate their violation by others. * * * Let 
reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to 
the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in the 
schools, in seminaries and in colleges ; let it be written in primers, 
in spelling books and in almanacs; let it be preached from the 
pulpits, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced in courts of 
justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the 
nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the 
grave and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and condi- 
tions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. — Abraham Lincoln, 

We give thy natal day to hope, 

O Country of our love and prayer! 
The way is down no fatal slope, 

But up to freer sun and air. 

Tried as by furnace fires, and yet 

By God's grace only stronger made, 
In future tasks before thee set 

Thou shalt not lack the old-time aid. 

The fathers sleep, but men remain 
As wise, as true, and brave as they ; 

Why count the loss and not the gain? 
The best is that we have today. 

:{: :|c ^ ^ :(: 

Great without seeking to be great 

By fraud or conquest, rich in gold, 
But richer in the large estate 

Of virtue which thy children hold, 

With peace that comes of purity 

And strength to simple justice due, 
So runs our loyal dream of thee; 

God of our fathers ! make it true. 

O Land of lands; to thee we give 

Our prayers, our hopes, our semce free ; 
For thee thy sons shall nobly live, 
And at thy need shall die for thee! 

— John Greenleaf Whittier. 
198 



THE OLD GOSPEL OF AMERICANISM 

There is no justification for the pretense of the Democratic 
press of the country that Senator Harding has, during the course 
of the campaign, modified his position on the league of nations. 

The declarations of the Republican candidate have from the 
beginning squared with the Republican national platform declara- 
tion on the league of nations. 

The notification speech, the speech on the league to the Indian- 
apolis delegation, and the recent speech at Des Moines, are of 
exactly the same significance. They express unyielding opposi- 
tion to certain outstanding features of both treaty and covenant 
as they were brought home from Paris by President Wilson, and 
voice a purpose to accept no international arrangement sacrificial, 
as these are, of the rights, ideals and interests of the American 
republic. 

Candidate Cox, who at the very outset of the campaign jour- 
neyed to Washington to take the oath of allegiance to the Demo- 
cratic sovereign and declare his complete at-oneness with the ad- 
ministration program of American denationalization, has been 
talking of his willingness to accept "clarifying resolutions." The 
Democratic national platform indicated willingness to accept reser- 
vations to the league of nations covenant which would "make 
clearer the obligations of the United States" under the league. 
There has been an efi'ort to make the country believe that such 
declarations as these represent a spirit of compromise with those 
dubious of the treaty's obligations and implications. But what the 
supporters of the Lodge reservations demanded was not clarifica- 
tion, but rectification of the covenant. Their complaint was not 
and is not that the provisions of the contract are doubtful, but 
that they are clearly destructive of American sovereignty, peace 
and prosperity. 

In his Des Moines speech Senator Harding in a few ringing sen- 
tences swept away all this fabric of false pretense. The evils of 
the covenant as proposed by President Wilson are not merely acci- 
dental and incidental ; they are fundamental and fatal. The world 
must be made to understand that we will go into no arrangement 
for world regulation which leaves even a shadow of doubt as to 
the maintenance of our national independence or our continued 
adherance to the policies of Washing-ton and Monroe. The differ- 
ences between Governor Cox and Senator Harding on this issue 
ai'e not mere matters of verbiage, but of principle. They involve 

199 



AMERICANISM 

conflicting conceptions of the nature and mission and destiny of 
this nation. One of these candidates would Europeanize America 
and the other would make America more American than ever, be- 
lieving that Europe is in more need of Americanization than 
America is of Europeanization. 

The Des Moines declaration of complete disagreement with some 
of the fundamental provisions of the league of nations covenant 
represents no change of attitude on the part of Senator Harding 
or of the Republican party. The method of amending the league 
of nations covenant by the process of reservations was not intend- 
ed to be a compromise of vital American principles and policies 
which the acceptance of the covenant as originally written would 
have destroyed. This method of amendment was adopted only 
because it seemed to be the process least destructive of the general 
idea of an association of nations for the preservation of the 
peace of the world, which the Republican party accepts. It was not 
intended to convey the idea that Republican leadership accepted 
the general policy of erecting a super-government sacrificial of 
American sovereignty, rights and ideals. Because these reserva- 
tions involved a declaration of such non-acceptance they were 
termed "destructive" by President Wilson. Ilis conception of a 
reservation, and the conception accepted by Governor Cox when 
he embraced the Wilson program, is that there should be_ even 
more clearly written into the covenant the doctrine that this na- 
tion takes upon itself responsibility for forever feeding, financing 
and fighting the world as occasion may demand under the terms 
of the pact. And so Senator Harding said at Des Moines : 

"My position, I think, has been made perfectly plain, but wheth- 
er it has or not, his (Governor Cox's) position is beyond cavil, and 
that is that we shall go into the Paris league without modification 
or substantial qualification. 

"To such a betrayal of my countrymen I will never consent. To 
those who desire to incur the hazard of intnisting any of the 
powers of the republic to the direction of a super-government, or, 
if you prefer, to a council of foreign powers, whether the obliga- 
tion to follow the council's direction be one of legal or of moral 
compulsion, I frankly say: 'Vote the Democratic ticket and pray 
God to protect you from the consequences of your folly.' " 

Again Senator Harding said: 

"I oppose the proposed league not because I fail to understand 
v^'hat a former member of the Democratic administration has said 
'we are being let in for,' but because I believe I understand pre- 
cisely what we are being let in for. I do not want to clarify these 
obligations: I want to turn my back on them. It is not intei-pre- 
tation, but rejection, that I am seeking. My position is that the 
proposed league strikes a deadly blow at our constitutional in- 
tegrity and surrenders to a dangerous extent our independence 
of action." 

200 



AMERICANISM 

These declarations are exactly in line with the Republican na- 
tional platfoi-m and with the prior pronouncements of Senator 
Harding. The real complaint against them is not that they lack 
clearness, but that they are entirely too clear to suit those who 
either openly or by stealth would alienate the blood-bought rights 
and liberties of the American people. In his Des Moines speech 
Senator Harding does not, as is falsely asserted, reject the general 
plan of international cooperation for the preservation of world 
peace in so far as this may be done without incurring obligations 
which, while they might help to guarantee for the time being the 
peace of other continents by making us the world's policeman and 
almoner, would peiTpetually, menace the peace of our own republic 
because of the obligation to keep the quarrelsome powers of older 
continents from one another's throats. Senator Harding declared 
in his Des Moines speech that "to formulate a plan of interna- 
tional cooperation which will contribute to the security and peace 
of the world without sacrificing or dangerously diluting our power 
to direct our own actions is a task of no small difficulty." He 
therefore does not arrogantly assume to say, without regard to 
the opinions of others it is proper for him to consult in formulat- 
ing plans on behalf of the nation, just what the program will be 
when responsibility comes to the new administration, but : 

"I am in favor of America meeting her every righteous obliga- 
tion in this respect. But I shall never present to the Senate any 
compact by which we shall in any degree surrender or leave in 
doubt the sovereign power of the United States to determine, 
without the compulsion or restraint of any extra-constitutional 
body, how and when and to what extent our duty in that respect 
shall be discharged. 

"As soon as possible after my election I shall advise with the 
best minds in the United States, and especially I shall consult in 
advance with the Senate, with whom, by the terms of the Consti- 
tution, I shall indeed be bound to counsel and without whose con- 
sent no such international association can be formed. I shall do 
this to the end that we shall have an association of nations for 
the promotion of international peace, but one which shall so defi- 
nitely safeguard our sovereignty and recognize our ultimate and 
unmortgaged freedom of action that it will have back of it, not a 
divided and distracted sentiment, but the united support of the 
American people. Without such united support no plan can be 
made fully or permanently successful." 

Is there anything ambiguous, or objectionable to any genuine 
American, holding to American rather than to alien ideals, in this 
declaration of principles or in this program? In view of the fact 
that in any association of nations for the preservation of the peace 
of the world, this republic must contribute the influence of the 
one great power that has no selfish interest to serve either in the 
treaty of peace or the league of nations compact, why should not 

201 



AMERICANIS.M 

the United States say upon what terms it will enter such an asso- 
ciation, rather than accept a hand-me-down, made in Europe world 
constitution framed by Europeans on the European model? And 
if the rest of the world is unwilling to accept a league which im- 
poses obligations upon the United States without honestly meeting 
the conditions essential to our consistent entry into it, why should 
the American republic feel the slightest obligation to enter the 
arrangement at all? Why should any American who thinks of 
the interests and ideals and security of his own country before 
he thinks of the selfish interests of other nations, want to involve 
this country in a world organization to wliich we contribute assets 
and from which we contract only liabilities? Why should the 
blood and treasure of this country l)e pledged to the rest of the 
world except on terms acceptable to the people of this country, 
and why should any man or set of men undertake to commit the 
American people to any arrangement in the perfection of which 
they have not been consulted, as Senator Harding proposes to 
consult them? 

The lines of battle have not changed in this campaign from 
the day of the adoption of the Republican national platform. Sena- 
tor Harding has stood squarely upon that platform. He has 
proved himself a candidate who fits that platform. He has ex- 
pounded it with a thoughtfulness, eloquence and patriotism which 
has commanded, increasingly from day to day, the admiration and 
respect and confidence of the American people. The claim that 
the Des Moines speech or any other speech from the notification 
address on down, has represented a shift of position, expresses 
either a failure to comprehend the plain meaning of the English 
language, a failure to read the speeches, or an unfair partisan 
desire to misrepresent them. 

Senator Harding stands for any plan of Intel-national associa- 
tion for the restoration and maintenance of world peace that will 
not sacrifice the American people's own hope of security, progress 
and fulfillment of national destiny. He is against the bogus, made- 
in-Europe, scheme of super-government which mentions, but does 
not provide disarmament, which speaks of, but does not arrange 
for that justice in international relationships upon which alone 
peace may securely be established, which, while breathing senti- 
ments of international altruism, is linked with a treaty conveying 
more of the spoils of war than were ever before transferred by a 
conqueror's terms of peace and under which more wars are raging 
today than were ever in progress at any one time in world history 
prior to the outbreak of the very war this treaty and covenant 
were written to terminate! 

The meaning of all this may not be clear to Governor Cox, his 
running mate, Mr. Roosevelt, and the Democratic press and 
politicians; but it is sufficiently plain to the American people m 
general. With a unanimity unprecedented in American history 

202 



AMERICANISM 



since the second election of James Monroe, they will go to the 
polls on November 2nd and there give notice to the world that 
the doctrine preached in this campaign by Warren G. Harding is 
the undefiled gospel of Americanism as we inherited it from our 
fathers, and as we will transmit it, please God, to our children and 
our children's children. 

—October 16, 1920. 

[czroEZDl 

Flag of the heroes who left us their gloiy, 

Borne through their battlefields' thunder and flame, 
Blazoned in song and illumined in story. 
Wave o'er us all who inherit their fame! 

Up with our banner bright. 

Sprinkled with starry light, 
Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, 

While through the sounding sky 

Loud rings the Nation's cry — 
Union and Liberty! One Evermore! 

Light of our firmament, guide of our Nation, 

Pride of her children, and honored afar. 
Let the wide beams of thy full constellation 

Scatter each cloud that would darken a star! 

Empire unsceptred! what foe shall assail thee. 

Bearing the standard of Liberty's van? 
Think not the God of thy fathers shall fail thee, 

Striving with men for the birthright of man! 

Lord of the Universe! shield us and guide us, 

Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun! 
Thou hast united us, who shall divide us? 
Keep us, oh, keep us the Many in One! 
Up with our banner bright, 
Sprinkled with starry light, 
Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore. 
While through the sounding sky 
Loud rings the Nation's cry — 
Union and Liberty! One Evermore! 

— Oliver Wendell Hohnes. 

America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among 
them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them 
the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reci- 
procity. She has uniformly spoken among them though often to 
heedless and often disdainful ears, the language of equal Hbeily, 
equal justice and equal rights. She has in the lapse of nearly half 

203 



AMERICANISM 

a century without a single exception respected the independence 
of other nations, while asserting and maintaining her own. She 
has abstained from interference in the concerns of others even 
where the conflict has been for principles to which she clings as 
to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that 
probably for centuries to come all the contests of that Acceldama, 
the European world, will be contests between inveterate power 
and emerging right. Whe^*ever the standard of freedom and inde- 
pendence has been or shall be unfurled, there will be her heart, her 
benediction and her prayers. But she goes not abroad in search 
of monsters to destroy. She is the well wisher to the freedom and 
independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of 
her own. She will recommend the general cause by the counte- 
nance of her voice and the benignant sympathy of her example. 
She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than 
her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence she 
would involve herself beyond the power of extrication in all the 
wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and am- 
bition which assume the colors and usurp the standard of free- 
dom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly 
change from liberty to force. The frontlet upon her brows would 
no longer beam with splendor of freedom and independence but in 
its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem flashing in 
false and tarnished lustre, the murky radiance of dominion and 
power. She might become the dictatress of the world: she would 
no longer be the ruler of her own spirit. — John Quincy Adams. 

Give me white paper! 
This which you use is black and rough with smears 
Of sweat and grime and fraud and blood and tears, 
Crossed with the story of men's sins and fears, 
Of battle and of famine all these years, 

When all God's children had forgot their birth, 

And drudged and fought and died like beasts of earth. 

"Give me white paper!" 
One storm-trained seaman listened to the word; 
What no man saw he saw ; he heard what no man heard. 

In answer he compelled the sea 

To eager man to tell 

The secret she had kept so well! 
Left blood and guilt and tyranny behind — 
Sailing still west the hidden shore to find; 

For all mankind that unstained scroll unfurled, 

Where God might write anew the story of the World. 

— Edward Everett Hale. 



204 



LAST CALL TO SERVICE 

We are in the closing days of a national campaign. The next 
issue of The National Republican will record the result. 

K you have not been stirred by the issues of this campaign, 
there is something the matter with you, as an American citizen. 
For these issues have been fundamental. They affect for better 
or worse the status of every citizen of this repubhc, now and 
henceforth. The effect of the great decision of November 2nd 
will be felt to the last generation of Americans. In a vital way 
it will determine the destiny of this republic. 

There are those who affect a pose of indifference to politics. 
They scoff at interest and activity in politics. They profess to be 
too wise, too impartial, too judicious, to take seriously the debates 
and the organization activities of a campaign. Whether such an 
attitude be the result of ignorance, of indifference, or of selfish- 
ness, the effect is the same. A republic having for its support and 
direction the suffrages only of such people as these would be a 
nation adrift upon the rocks. 

No one is foolish enough to imagine that any business enter- 
prise is destined to success if its affairs be indifferently conducted. 
Thoughtful direction is necessary to the progress and prosperity 
of any human undertaking. A government like ours, in which 
sovereignty is vested in citizenship, will go to wreck unless the 
people study and help to solve by active participation in the settle- 
ment of public questions, the problems which confront the nation. 

Every national election determines national destiny. As be- 
tween the alternatives presented in each national campaign the 
choice of the people cannot lead to identical results. Either choice 
camiot be equally wise. This year the issues are more clearly 
defined than usual. The differences between the two great political 
parties, in their platforms and in their candidates, are so distinct 
that no one not dull witted or thoughtless could contend for a mo- 
ment that conditions in this country four years, ten years, fifty 
years hence, will be the same regardless of which ticket is success- 
ful. 

Looking back over the history of this republic from the veiy 
beginning we know that every election result has been important 
in its permanent influence upon national history. This is not the 
same country it would have been if Douglas had beaten Lincohi, 
if Seymour had defeated Grant, if Harrison had been re-elected, 
if Bryan had defeated McKinley or Parker, Roosevelt. Who knows 

205 



AMERICANISM 

what the history of this country would have been during the past 
few years if a united Repubhcan party had elected a President in 
1912, or if Hughes, instead of Wilson, had been chosen President 
in 1916? 

How closely a national election result may touch any given 
home no member of that household may be certain. It may put 
its hand upon some boy and send him to die in Siberia or Italy. 
It may bring unemployment to the head of the household and 
consequent deprivation to every dweller in the home. It may 
cheapen or heighten the cost of daily living; it may broaden or 
narrow opportunity for a new generation ; it m.ay lighten or make 
heavier the burden of taxation; it may increase or decrease educa- 
tional or economic opportunity ; it may make more secuie or inse- 
cure the guarantees of free citizenship. In some degree every 
national election decision is certain to do some of these things. 

But, some cynics argue, all political parties are "rotten," — all 
are therefore unworthy of confidence. Political parties are 
"rotten" just in proportion as the millions who go to make them up 
are "rotten" or indifferent to rottenness themselves ; no more so ; 
no less so. Political parties may be the playthings of politicians 
having in mind only the spoils of office, and the advantages of 
power; or they may be noble instrumentalities of public service. 
What they are depends upon the people themselves, and those who 
argue against general participation in politics contribute thereby 
to the very end they suggest as an argument against participation 
in party affairs. 

But political parties are not rotten. Sometimes they have wrong 
headed and even corrupt leadership. It is safe to assume that the 
overwhelming majority of the members of all political parties 
have the same object in view, — and that their country's good. 
But good intentions do not of themselves produce good results. 
Some of the most harmful men and movements in history have 
been inspired by good pui'poses. What the citizen must study and 
decide is whether the record of a given political leadership in pow- 
er, and whether the measures it proposes in the country's interests, 
lead to the conclusion that this leadership v/ill in fact help or harm 
the republic. Here arises the necessity of public discussion of 
public issues, that they may be decided intelligently as well as 
patriotically. 

This is the one government in the world under which general 
public opinion is determinative of public questions. Here alone 
public questions are the subject of universal popular discussion. 
Alien and domestic critics may ridicule the excitement of a na- 
tional campaig-n, but it is the manifestation of the public intelli- 
gence and the public conscience engaged in arriving at those fate- 
ful decisions at the ballot box that represent the exercise of the 
only sovereignty to which we as Americans yield allegiance. 

Does your government, your nation, your republic, mean any- 

206 



AMERICANISM 

thing- to you? Have you caught somethmg of the spirit of the 
men who gave it being, and who at the cost of such toil and sacri- 
fice have made it and kept it that you and yours might live within 
the shelter of a flag that is the symbol of orderly freedom; the 
banner of the freest, mightiest, happiest land beneath the sun? 
Are you grateful for your national heritage as an American; are 
you thoughtful of the national heritage you and others of this, 
your generation, will hand down to your children and your chil- 
dren's children? 

If the pride and sense of responsibility and power of American 
citizenship dwells within you, apologize to no one for the interest 
you take in politics, for politics in a republic is the determination 
of public questions by public opinion. Apologize to no one for 
having the courage and the enthusiasm of your convictions, — 
which is no more nor less than partisanship in behalf of the funda- 
mentals of your own creed of patriotism. Feel sorry for, but do 
not be influenced by any critic of politics or political interest or 
political partisanship who is too selfish or careless to do the duties 
of free citizenship manfully, or too bloodless to feel the thrill of 
participation in a great national decision such as that we are now 
about to make. 

And you who read these lines, — if you believe the cause of 
Republicanism this year to be, in effect, the cause of your country ; 
if you feel that Republican victory in the election of a Republican 
President and Congress, is essential to the highest and best inter- 
ests of your nation; if you feel that by Repubhcan failure the 
prosperity, the security and even the sovereignty of your republic 
may be menaced, — why stop with casting your ballot for this 
cause on November 2nd ? Why not arouse your indifterent neigh- 
bor to a sense of his responsibility ? Why not present your views 
to your doubting friend ? Why not bear a hand in bringing to the 
polls every possible Republican vote on Tuesday next? 

Election day should be a sacred day in the calendar of patriot- 
ism. It is a day that every man and woman who can afford to do so 
should be willing to give "to his country. As the evening shadows 
fall on Tuesday next the fate of this republic, not merely for four 
years, but for all time, will have been determined. Between now 
and that time why not do something for your party, — for your 
country ? Not because mere party victory is worth while in itself, 
but because you, as a Republican, believe that such victory will 
open to your party the opportunity to bring order out of chaos, 
to restore the foundations of constitutional government, to throw 
up once more the coast defenses of American interests and ideals 
against injurious alien invasion, and to put in the hand of America 
once more, instead of the club of a world policeman, the blazing 
torch of Liberty enlightening the world. 
—October 30, 1920. 

207 



AMERICANISM 

In a chariot of light from the regions of day, 

The Goddess of Liberty came; 
Ten thousand celestials directed the way, 

And hither conducted the dame. 
A fair budding branch from the gardens above, 

Where millions with millions agree, 
She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love, 

And the plant she named Liberty Tree. 

The celestial exotic struck deep in the ground, 

Like a native it flourished and bore; 
The fame of its fruit drew the nations around, 

To seek out this peaceable shore. 
Unmindful of names or distinctions they came, 

For freemen like brothers agree ; 
With one spirit endued, they one friendship pursued, 

And their temple was Liberty Tree. 

Beneath this fair tree, like the patriarchs of old, 

Their bread in contentment they ate 
Unvexed with the troubles of silver and gold, 

The cares of the grand and the great. 
With timber and tar they Old England supplied. 

And supported her power on the sea ; 
Her battles they fought, without getting a groat, 

For the honor of Liberty Tree. 

But hear; ye swains, 'tis a tale most profane, 

How all the tyrannical powers, 
Kings, Commons and Lords, are uniting amain, 

To cut down this guardian of ours; 
Fi'om the east to the west blow the trumpet to arms. 

Through the land let the sound of it flee, 
Let the far and the near, all unite with a cheer. 

In defence of our Liberty Tree. 

— Thomas Paine. 

America is more than fertile fields, more than bursting banks, 
more than waving flags. The America in which one must believe, 
and for which he must sacrifice, is constitutional liberty and justice 
according to law, guaranteed and administered by three coordinate 
branches of government. Just in proportion as we weaken the 
energy of the system through changes in the Constitution— which 
Washington so earnestly warned against — we undermine what 
thus far no one has succeeded in overthrov/ing. — Leslie M. Shaw. 



208 



THE MEANING OF TUESDAY'S TRIUMPH 

By majorities which stagger the imagination, the Repubhcan 
party has been swept into power on the crest of the most tremen- 
dous tidal wave that ever bore one poUtical party to triumph and 
engulfed another in disaster. The most sanguine expectations of 
the prophets of Republican success have been exceeded in the un- 
precedented magnitude of Repubhcan triumph. Every state in 
the Union where elections represent a real expression of public 
opinion has broken all records in the size of its Republican majori- 
ties. City and country, east, north and west, have joined in 
rendering a common verdict; in setting the seal of condemnation 
upon the party in power and in calling the Republican party to the 
great task of national restoration. 

In all the history of this republic there has not been a more 
impressive manifestation of the power of public opinion. Millions 
have yielded up their traditional party predilections, and have 
joined in a vote of protest against the record of the present na- 
tional administration in both domestic and foreign affairs. These 
same millions have selected the Republican party as the instru- 
mentality through which the republic is to be led from chaos to 
order; through which the fundamentals of constitutional govern- 
ment are to be re-established ; through which this nation is again 
to be governed by a leadership frankly and fearlessly pro-American 

in its spirit and its policies. 

***** 

How rem.^ikable this manifestation of what we call public opin- 
ion; of the essential homogeneity of the millions who, scattered 
over a continental domain, go to make up the American republic! 
The same facts, the same arguments, the same thoughts, the same 
ideals, which made New England overwhelmingly Republican on 
Tuesday last, brought a similar result equally decisive in the 
states on the Pacific slope, in the Rocky Mountain regions, in the 
prairie, Mississippi Valley and Middle West states. In this great 
decision there was no sectionalism, except in that portion of the 
republic where a partisan Democratic oligarchy has put the "mock" 
in democracy and made elections of no significance whatever as 
expressions of opinion and conviction upon national questions. 

How truly national this verdict in behalf of the preservation of 
American nationality ! With what finality it serves notice on the 
world that the American people are highly resolved that no man, 
or set of men, shall barter away the ideals, rights and interests of 

209 



AMERICANISM 

the American republic; that no man or set of men, indeed, shall 
ever be accepted abroad as having the right to pledge the faith 
of this nation to any compact in the formulation of which this 
self-goveiTiing people has not been consulted, and to which our 
assent has not been secured. 

Here, indeed, is the one nation in the world, in which this prob- 
lem of the proposed super-government of force was submitted to 
the people, discussed by them in their shops, homes, fields, mines 
as well as in the halls of legislation; where any serious effort was 
made by the masses of the people to reach a conclusion as to the 
merits of the proposals of the Paris peace conference for world 
government, and where the people were privileged, after consid- 
eration of the great questions involved, to register their decision. 
Every other nation which has su))scribed to the unamended league 
covenant, has been committed to it not by the will of the people, 
but by the mere decision of officialism. 

It has, indeed, been a great and solemn referendum; here we 
have seen, in this matter of vital mom.ent to the whole world, the 
one instance of government of, by and for the people in the deci- 
sion of a matter vital in its bearing upon the destiny of the people 
involved. We are told that some forty nations have accepted the 
covenant of the league of nations ; what we have not been told is 
that in our country alone among all the great powers of earth 
there has been a deliberate decision of the matter based upon 

months of discussion and deliberation. 

* * * * * 

To attribute this tremendous groundswell of public sentiment 
to any one cause would be to ignore a dozen important elements 
which have contri})uted to Republican victory and Democratic 
defeat. It would be a waste of space to recount and to discuss 
them here. They have been fully discussed in the columns of this 
paper during the historic campaign just closed. The people were 
wearied with Wilsonism and all it represents. They were tired 
of autocracy, of usui-pation, of inefficiency, of insincerity, of fine 
phrases unaccompanied by deeds which bore them out, of the con- 
centration of the powers of government in the hands of an execu- 
tive who felt himself above taking counsel with the representa- 
tives of the people in matters of public concern, of carelessness of 
the public interests as manifested in extravagance and waste. 
They were out of patience with breakers of pledges and betrayers 
of public trust ; of government by a leadership capable of sacrific- 
ing pubHc interests to personal and partisan ends. 

Disgusted as the people were with the hopeless incompetency of 
the leadership in power, they were repelled even more by the ad- 
ministration's disavowal of a duty to represent and to serve the 
American people as against any other people or combination of 
people on earth. Visionaries may cry that the disposition of the 
great mass of the American people to think of their own republic 

210 



AMERICANISM 

first is a manifestation of national selfishness, but the average 
American knows that despite all this hypocritical profession of 
altruism, the man who does not think first of his own country 
does so because he is lacking in the loyalty to this republic that 
characterizes every true patriot. The average American knows 
that we have made great sacrifices in behalf of the rest of the 
world during the past few years and that these sacrifices, unac- 
companied by any demand for material gain, have failed to earn 
for us the gratitude or even the respect of nations which have 
been busily engaged during the past two years in trying to gi-ab 
every inch of soil, every dollar of money, every prospect of trade 
and every foot of shipping of which a fallen adversary could be 
despoiled. 

H: :;: * * 'f 

The champions of the un-Americanized covenant of the league 
of nations may take whatever satisfaction they like out of the 
claim that the people repudiated the unexpurgated world constitu- 
tion because they did not understand it. The truth is that we are 
the only people in the world who made any effort to understand it ; 
who did not take it hand-me-down from its makers, thanking them 
for the privilege of rubber stamping our signatures upon it. The 
American people do not propose to have America Europeanized 
either by the conscious or unconscious agents of alien powers or 
by theoretical idealists who have lost the fundamental doctrines 
and ideals of Americanism through too much absoi-ption of Euro- 
pean "culture." 

July 4, 1776, stands forth in American history as the day upon 
which the American colonies declared their freedom from Euro- 
pean domination, and proclaimed themselves "free and independ- 
ent states." November 2, 1920, will go down in American histoiy 
as our second Independence day, when the American people served 
notice on the world that this national independence, so dearly 
bought and so long maintained, would never be surrendered, and 
that America proposes to maintain forever unimpaired, her sover- 
eignty, her security and her ideals. 

America is not now, has never been and never will be a hermit 
nation, careless of the welfare of the rest of the world. No nation 
in history has written so glorious a record of altruism in inter- 
national relationships. Willingness to cooperate for the mainte- 
nance of the world's peace, prosperity and happiness does not;^ 
mean, however, readiness to enter into political partnership with 
all the rest of the world without thought of the influence upon 
the destiny of this republic and of the world, of the surrender of 
America's right of independent decision upon the problems which 
affect the future of this one nation where public questions are 
actually thought out, and fought out in the great forum of public 
opinion. 

211 



AMERICANISM 

But with the great triumph of Tuesday the task of RepubUcan- 
ism is not completed. It is only begun. As President-elect Har- 
ding has said, this is not the time for exultation, but, as Lincoln 
said, for "dedication to the great task remaining before us." Re- 
publican leadership faces the greatest task that has been commit- 
ted to it since the inauguration of the first Republican President. 
Upon the ability of Republicanism to meet the new duties of this 
new occasion depends not merely the fate of the Republican party, 
but, in no small measure the destiny, even the safety, of the repub- 
lic itself. The people have given expression to their bitter disap- 
pointment over Democratic failure. The failure of Republicanism 
would put millions of Americans in a frame of mind where they 
would say: "A plague on both your houses;" where they would 
lose confidence in party government and in representative repub- 
lican government itself. 

In the nature of things it will be impossible for Republicanism 
to satisfy all the elements which joined in Tuesday's vote of pro- 
test; for with many it was only a vote of protest, and not a vote 
of confidence in the Republican party. In the nature of things the 
next four years will witness greater activity on the part of revo- 
lutionary radicalism than has ever been known in this country 
before. This spirit is abroad in the world ; the United States will 
not escape its dangers. The new administration will be subjected 
not only to reasonable, but to unfair criticism. The battle is on 
in this country between fundamental Americanism and European 
revolutionary radicalism; it will be the duty of those who believe 
in American institutions to rally to their defense during the next 
few years as never before, for now the necessity will be greater 
than ever before. 

The Republican national platform of 1920 declared that too much 
must not be expected quickly in the restoration of satisfactoiy 
national conditions. The job, after eight years of Wilsonism, is 
one for a wrecking crew. The first task is to clear away the debris. 
Too much must not be expected from the development of elaborate 
"programs" of legislation. When a house is on fire, the first step 
toward reconstruction is to put out the fire. The first great task 
of the Republican party will be to stop many things that have 
been going on destructive of the general welfare. To restore effi- 
ciency in the administration of the public business ; to put an end 
to criminal waste and extravagance; to reduce the operations of 
the national government to a business basis; this in itself is a 
giant task which must be accomplished before the work of build- 
ing anew can be much advanced. 

sH * * ■'.< * 

The National Republican has unbounded faith in the power for 
good in public affairs of common honesty and common sense. It 
has not the faith felt by many in the power of mere legislation to 
create social, economic or political perfection. The outstanding 

212 



AMERICANISM 

lesson of our recent national experience is the power of govern- 
mental authority, misused by misguided or ill-intentioned official- 
ism, to inflict harm upon the people; to wreak havoc and spread 
ruin. The country is suffering at this time from over-government. 
Fundamentally the greatest harm done by the present national 
administration has been the attempt to substitute in this country 
the socialistic state under which the citizen is the slave and tool 
of government, for the American conception of a government 
which is the servant and the instrument of citizenship. This is 
only another phase of the Europeanism which has held sway in 
Washington as an attempted substitute for traditional American- 
ism. We have found that through this continual extension of the 
power of government, this concentration of public power in the 
hands of a few, and its exei'cise without regard to the basic prin- 
ciples of historic Americanism, great wrongs and abuses may be 
ci'eated, and the people may be led to look upon the government 
as an engine of compulsion and coei'cion rather than of service. 

In such a crisis in national affairs, with its clear call for return 
to the highway upon which our forefathers set the feet of this 
republic in the days of Washington, no leader better fitted for the 
tremendous tasks ahead could have been chosen than Warren G. 
Harding. Comparatively unknown to the American people at the 
beginning of the campaign which has resulted in his triumphant 
election, the people have come to believe that in him they have 
found one who will enter upon the woik of national restoration 
with the humility, the wisdom, the courage, the patriotism, the 
common sense requisite to the mighty task committed to his 
hands. 

The people believe that President-elect Harding will bring to 
the highest post of responsibility in the world, the courage, the 
vision, the loyalty, the wisdom, above all the spirit of consecra- 
tion to duty, which will enable the Republican party, and the Amer- 
ican people, under his leadership, to meet and solve the great 
problems which now confront the nation. The American people 
have i-esponded to the call of Republicanism for a Congress in 
harmony with the purposes of the new administration. We are 
assured of the team-work at Washington essential to the har- 
monious functioning of the two branches of government which 
must cooperate in the development of a national program. 

We are to enter again, in national affairs, upon an era of gov- 
ernment by common counsel. The newly elected President has 
announced his intention of calling to larger participation in gov- 
ernment the Vice President of the United States. In Goveraor 
Coolidge the American people have chosen a Vice President com- 
petent to restore the second office in the republic to that larger 
place in the national economy contemplated by Senator Harding. 
Senator Harding will be found consulting the Vice President; he 
will choose a cabinet, not of puppets and rubber stamps, but of 

213 



AMERICANISM 

men of demonstrated capacity, and lie will consult his cabinet ; he 
will consult the representatives of the people in the Congress ; he 
will confer with representative men and women in private life; 
he will consult with Democrats as well as Republicans. The day of 
White House isolation, of personal government, is over; the win- 
dows are to be thrown open. The business of the American peo- 
ple is to be transacted within their view and with their help, by a 
President who enters upon his duties with no delusion that he is 
a super-man, or an inspired prophet, but only with the thought 
of serving well the people who have committed to his hands the 
national leadership, the world leadership, involved in election to 

the Presidency of the United States, 

* * * * * 

But the responsibility does not belong alone to the new Presi- 
dent or to the new Congress. The rank and file of Republicanism 
has its part to play in the new era upon which we are about to 
enter. It must stand behind, and support and uphold Republican 
leadership in all that it may undertake for the country's good. It 
must insist upon cooperation of all elements of Republicanism at 
Washington. It must demand that every man entrusted with a 
commission to public service through the favor of Republicanism, 
must subordinate personal and factional ends to the common wel- 
fare of the party and the country. The people have not elected 
individuals to office. They have chosen the Republican party for 
leadership. We must have a restoration of party responsibility 
and of party government, using that term in no narrow or pro- 
scriptive sense, but in the sense that Republican leadership must 
counsel together in the formulation of policies, and then loyally 
cooperate in their execution. 
—November 8, 1920. 

IcnoEZDl 



We are in the war and we can come out of it only as conquerors 
or conquered, victorious or dishonored: as an independent or a 
subject nation. Our lives, our homes, our institutions, all that 
Washington fought for and Lincoln died for, are at stake. Our 
only way out now is to fight it out for the simple cause of America 
and Americans. We must, as John Hancock said, "hang together 
or hang separately." The man who in public or private life subor- 
dinates this cause to any other consideration, no matter what, or 
who fails in the full, devoted and efficient performance of his duty 
to the nation, is a traitor to himself, his family, the republic and 
the right. — An editorial printed in The National Republican every 
week during American participation in the World war. 

I speak as one who is old-fashioned enough to believe that the 
government of the United States of America is good enough for 
me. — Warren G. Harding. 

214 



A LEAGUE OF JUSTICE vs. A LEAGUE OF FORCE 

Much of the discussion in the public press of the probable atti- 
tude of the next national administi-ation on the league of nations 
issue, is a mixture of speculation and propaganda entitled to little 
more consideration than the serious discussion by the same jour- 
nalists of the "drift to Cox" during the last three or four weeks 
of the recent campaign. 

There is no ground for doubt as to the attitude of the new ad- 
ministration toward the Wilson league of nations, or any other 
league or association or scheme of super-sovereignty which in- 
volves the sacrifice of American independence, rights, interests or 
ideals. It was made clear in many public utterances by Senator 
Harding. The election result was a repudiation of the whole plan 
of sacrificing America for the sake of Europe, in whose behalf 
America has already sacrificed so much, without the hope or desire 
for recompense. The American people said with an emphasis 
never to be forgotten that they were not in favor of guaranteeing 
European peace at the sacrifice of American safety ; that they were 
not in favor of stabilizing European finance at the sacrifice of 
American prosperity ; that they were not in favor of risking Amer- 
ican ideals in order that certain more or less definite and tangible 
world ideas might be put to the test of experiment, until, at least, 
we had better evidence than was at hand of the sincerity of Eui'O- 
pean profession of a willingness to adopt a system of international 
ethics of which their own lecent conduct has constituted an almost 
continuous repudiation. 

Unquestionably the whole league idea, even as modified by 
Americanizing reservations, has been endangered by the stubborn- 
ness of its chief American exponent in refusing to accept modifica- 
tions of the covenant as he brought it home from Europe. The 
more the American people have talked about and thought about 
the plan of involving the United States in the affairs of Europe, 
the more they have become awakened to the dangers of our un- 
guarded participation in world politics. Presumably President 
Wilson thought, when he welcomed the plan to submit the cove- 
nant to a "great and solemn" referendum, that he, in his position, 
represented American public opinion. Possibly he has suffered no 
awakening as the result of the election verdict of November 2nd, 
— for with some people voices in the air are truer indices of public 
sentiment than a popular decision itself, however ovenvhelming in 
its character. Presumably there were other people similarly de- 

215 



AMERICANISM 

luded. Yet upon the issue the Wilsonian candidate was unable to 
cany a single state of the Union in which there is a free, untram- 
melled expression of genuine public sentiment on public questions 
at the polls, losing the country by a vote approaching a two to one 
proportion. 

This paper long ago called attention to the fundamental weak- 
ness of the proposed world constitution, in that its very formula- 
tion was by methods alien to the spirit of American constitutional 
government oi- representative republican government of any sort. 
We are not accustomed in this country to have constitutions and 
laws handed down to us from on high. It has always been the 
theory of our form of government that legislation was the function 
of representatives of the people deliberately chosen for that pur- 
pose. But in the case of this proposed world constitution the most 
undemocratic, the most unrepublican methods, were employed in 
its preparation. Those who wrote it were not chosen for the task 
by the peoples, or even the governments, they supposedly repre- 
sented. They were ambassadors to a peace council, created for 
the puipose of settling the immediate issues of a gi'eat w^ar. They 
chose, without the slightest semblance of authority for so doing, 
to resolve themselves into a constitutional convention for the for- 
mulation of the fundamental law of a world government. 

It is not usually true that you can get right results by wrong 
methods. The whole league plan began with flagrant usurpation 
by its sponsors. It was developed in an atmosphere of secrecy and 
intrigue entirely inconsistent with the ideals professed by the 
authors of the scheme. There was an exclusion of public opinion 
not only in the nations directly conceiTied in the formulation of 
the covenant, but in the neutral nations and generally throughout 
the world, which made it impossible that anything actually repre- 
sentative of the desires of the people of the world should be 
evolved. This is the only nation in the world in which the people, 
after thorough debate and deliberation, passed judgment upon the 
scheme and the manner of its evolution. But for the wise provi- 
sion of the American Constitution that the American people, 
through their legislative representatives, must be consulted in 
international decisions affecting themselves, the unamended cove- 
nant would have been shoved over on them just as successfully 
as it has been upon the peoples of other nations not accustomed 

to deciding questions of this kind for themselves. 

***** 

The people of the United States are willing to commit themselves 
to the determination of international questions by equity, but not 
to their decision by political processes in which we would play a 
subordinate part, and in which we might become the victims of 
alien alliances and combinations of interest. 

We believe the American people would be willing to choose rep- 

216 



AMERICANISM 

resentatives to a world congress assembled for the pui^pose of 
formulating a complete code of international law, erecting a world 
court chosen to act in a legal rather than a representative capacity, 
in the determination of all future subjects of international dispute, 
subject to such reservations as that no power in either hemis- 
phere shall seek to extend further its territory in the other hemis- 
phere, the doctrine which with America is a better guarantee 
against becoming involved in the complications of European poli- 
tics than any league of nations could be. We believe the American 
people could agree with the rest of the world upon the question of 
what international problems are justiciable, and which are funda- 
mentally domestic and therefore not properlj'- subject to decision 
by extraneous authority. Such a question, undoubtedly, is that of 
every nation to determine upon what conditions, and to what 
extent, aliens may enter, live and transact business in it. America 
would not leave to any court the question of whether an unlimited 
number of orientals maj'- come into the country, nor would any 
other civilized nation menaced by possible inundation from that 
quarter. America would not leave to any court the question of 
our right to protect and foster our own industries to the end that 
our own standard of wages and living and rewards for entei-prise 
may be maintained, nor would any friendly nation seriously ask 
that we should do this. 

We believe the American people would gladly consent to a mutual 
plan of world disarmament, requiring that nations should abolish 
conscription for military sei-vice and maintain only such armies 
and navies as may be necessary to police their own territories. 
Nothing of that sort, be it remembered, is provided for except in a 
few indefinite phrases in the covenant of the league of nations. 
We believe they would gladly agi'ee to cooperation with the rest 
of the world in agreeing to treat as a pariah any nation which 
refused to observe good faith, give to all nationals residing within 
their borders the equal protection of their laws as to person and 
property, and respect the decisions of the world court. 

It has been argued that The Hague tribunal failed to prevent 
the World war, and that any mere judicial arrangement would 
have the same weakness. The Hague tribunal and the whole plan 
of international arbitration failed for the simple reason that the 
gi*eat powers of Europe were not inspired by the purposes and 
ideals which before the World war made peaceable deteiTnination 
of inteniational disputes possible. Until they are controlled by 
such purposes and ideals, any plan for international cooperation 
will fail. That statement applies more forcibly to the league of 
nations as proposed in the Paris covenant than to any other scheme 
yet suggested. 

The World war has not whetted the taste for war throughout 
the world. Rather it has sickened the people of the world with 
war as never before. The people are ready for peace. Only the 

217 



AMERICANISM 

diplomats, the professional politicians of the Old World, only the 
masters of the present Russian despotism, anxious to ravage and 
loot the world, only certain sui*vivals of mediaeval militarism in 
the Orient, stand in the way. Not for the next generation would 
any government dare reject the decision of a great judicial trib- 
unal, solemnly rendered after a full hearing of the cause ; no gov- 
ei-nment would dare go to war with the subjects of dispute pending 
before such a tribunal. And if there should remain such a nation, 
the object lesson of ruined Gei-many will long linger in the minds 
of men to deter governmental leaders from flying in the face of 

world opinion. 

* * * * s:< 

The world's peace will be best preserved not by the creation of a 
political world machine, not by setting up somewhere in Europe a 
world Congress to become the center of world intiigue, where 
nation will be played against nation by the skilled masters of 
diplomacy, but by the creation of a code of law and procedure, 
based upon equity, to which all nations will mutually agi'ee to 
yield respect and obedience, within those limitations necessary for 
the preservation of national self-respect and independence. 

The historic error of President Wilson in yielding to the idea of 
a world government, rather than standing sponsor for world juris- 
prudence and a world court, may be retrieved by President Harding 
in requesting the nations of the world to choose representatives 
to a world assembly, to meet in Washington, the capital of the one 
great power which is not trying to put anything over in world 
politics, and there to agree upon a code of international law cover- 
ing every possible phase of future dispute, and the creation of a 
world supreme court, composed of representatives of the highest 
judicial tribunals of the great powers; each of the chief powers to 
select one representative, perhaps, the remainder of the court to 
be chosen of representatives of the smaller powers serving alter- 
nately. There might be added to the supreme court, indeed, a 
secondary chamber corresponding to the league assembly, com- 
posed of legal representatives of all the associated nations, to 
which might be given the power, by a two-thirds vote, to return 
for modification decrees of the supreme body. 

This is the form of internationalism which would be desired by 
any nation which is actually seeking justice rather than advantage, 
in arrangements ostensi))ly perfected for preserving the world's 
peace. Lasting peace can be based only upon justice. Justice 
can be based only upon fundamental principles of right and wrong. 
The trouble with the arrangement perfected at Paris was that 
those chiefly interested in its formulation did not honestly desire 
the rule of justice throughout the world. Their thought v/as only 
to advance their own interests. The nations of the world should 
be given an opporfunity to prove their good faith in present prot- 
estations of a purpose to bnng al)out the reign of peace and of 

218 



AMERICANISM 

justice throughout the world. By the proposal of a world agree- 
ment upon the fundamental principles of international law and 
relationship, and the creation of a court acting in a legal rather 
than a political capacity to interpret and apply these principles; 
by the further proposal of a definite agreement of decreases of 
armament; by an agreement to support the decisions of the world 
tribunal by every economic weapon at the command of the asso- 
ciated nations; by these and similar proposals the test of good 
faith would be applied to the great powers and the smaller nations 
of the world. 

As to whether or not we should become parties to the treaty of 
Paris is not a matter of great concern to Americans. Its indem- 
nities and territorial dispositions do not affect us. Self interest 
does not prompt our participation, and for the injustices of the 
treaty, many of which are clear enough, we have no reason to 
share responsibility. With Germany and Austria disarmed and 
crippled beyond the possibility of early recovery, we need no guar- 
antee against the aggressions of our former foes. Nor is there 
any apparent necessity for our participation in the enforcement 
of provisions of the treaty which the beneficiary nations may be 
depended upon to execute. Our separate peace with the central 
powers long ago became an actuality. 

* sj: * * * 

No motive of self interest prompts this nation to desire member- 
ship in any world government so constituted as to involve the 
danger of American complication in the combinations and collisions 
of European politics. No one but a madman or a theorist drunk 
with his own impractical ideas would wish to make American 
peace contingent, for all time to come, on European peace. For 
Americans know that the soil of Europe, with its crazy quilt of 
jarring nationalities, is sown thick with the seed of age-old rival- 
ries, hatreds and conflicting ambitions : racial, religious, territorial 
and dynastic. Americans who understand the theory of their own 
government and the merit of its institutions, know that the ob- 
stacles to peace are greater now than ever, since Europe's further 
departure from the American idea of federation and international 
admixture toward the war-breeding plan of "self determination of 
peoples." We have shown the whole world by our great experi- 
ment that under a government which exists for public service, 
rather than for oppression and exploitation, peoples and states 
which might otherwise be at war may be united in loyalty to one 
flag. Our representatives at Paris should have sought a more 
united, and not a more divided Europe. With sixteen new nations 
sixteen more causes of war have been created. Yet it is seriously 
proposed that we shall take pot luck with humanity in the matter 
of peace, economic stability and financial integrity, which, other- 
wise stated, means that we shall assume a contract to feed, fight 
and finance the world. 

219 



AMERICANISM 

Justice and peace are the need of the world. There can be peace 
only through justice. Justice is attainable through equity, and 
not through force. America should lead the world to peace 
through justice. 
—November 20, 1920. 



Our foreign policy is always at last determined by the processes 
of popular opinion. For this reason, it is the duty of citizens to 
know as much as possible of the questions which they themselves 
must decide, of the history of our principal international events 
and of the diplomatic policy of our country. 

The diplomacy of the United States had its origin with the 
Revolution, by which our liberties were secured. Its principal 
representatives in Europe were Benjamin Franklin and John 
Adams. They were great men ; but the latter was by disposition 
singularly unfit for a diplomatic position. Dogmatic, suspicious, 
turbulent, domineering, bluntly and inflexibly honest, burning with 
a love of country which sometimes set fire to and consumed the 
objects of his noblest efforts, Adams left little trace of his exer- 
tions upon our foreign i-elations except the traits of his character. 

Franklin went to France as our envoy in 1776. He was then 
seventy years of age. In less than two years he had negotiated 
a treaty by which the most absolute monarch in Europe, excepting 
the sultan and the czar, agreed to make common cause against 
England, with a republic which was itself a protest against his 
royal tenure by Divine right, and "to guaranty to the United States 
their liberty, sovereignty and independence absolute and unlimited, 
with all their present possessions, or which they should have at the 
conclusion of the war." 

This is the most momentous event in our diplomatic history. It 
made our independence unquestionably secure. It is more than 
doubtful whether our ancestors could have succeeded without it. 
It was also momentous for Europe in its consequences. The sol- 
diers of France saw in the United States a religion without an 
established church, a free press, a government by the people. When 
they returned, they set up their examples before the French people, 
whose thoughts had been liberalized, whose devoutness had been 
impaired, whose sense of allegiance had been weakened by the 
encyclopaedists and their propagandists. The French Revolution 
came within ten years, and it is sad to read in its annals, as passing 
under the knife of the guillotine many a noble head which was 
crested with exaltation in the fleet of De Grasse, and in the army 
of Rochambeau, when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. 

Franklin was a born diplomatist, and he was much more. His 
genius for negotiation was but one face of his many-sided charac- 
ter. 

This old man appeared in the gayest and most conventional 

220 



AMERICANISM 

couit in Europe, in the midst of the most elaborately artificial 
society ever known to civilization, in plain coat, white hose, spec- 
tacles on nose, and wearing a soft white hat. And that court and 
society were at once charmed and subdued by his majestic and 
simple presence. 

It is impossible to read the accounts of his transactions in Eu- 
rope without realizing his patience, his method, his foresight, his 
knowledge of all kinds of human nature, his finesse, his righteous 
dissimulation, his impregnability to be overreached by anybody, 
his capacity to get the better of everybody who attempted to out- 
v/it him, his firmness, his integi'ity, his proud humihty. All these 
are manifest throughout his entire career in Europe, and they are 
particularly plain in the negotiations of the treaty by which Great 
Britain recognized our independence. 

He foiTiied the model upon which American diplomacy has ever 
since generally been shaped, — plain dealing, plain speaking, simple 
dignity, adequate, but not superfluous, ceremonial and unswerv- 
ing fidelity to the interests of his country alone. — Cushman K. 
Davis. 

Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, 
The queen of the world, and child of the skies! 
Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold, 
While ages on ages thy splendors unfold. 
Thy reign is the last, and the noblest of time, 
Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime ; 
Let the crimes of the east ne'er crimson thy name, 
Be freedom, and science, and virtue, thy fame. 

To conquest, and slaughter, let Europe aspire ; 
Whelm nations in blood, and wrap cities in fire : 
Thy heroes the rights of mankind shall defend, 
And triumph pursue them, and gloiy attend. 
A world is thy realm ; for a world be thy laws, 
Enlarg'd as thine empire, and just as thy cause; 
On Freedom's broad basis, that empire shall rise. 
Extend with the main, and dissolve with the skies. 

— Timothy Dwight. 

This (Monroe) doctrine, so profound of import, was not, we 
apprehend, the sudden creation of individual thought, but the 
result rather of slow processes in our public mind, which had been 
constantly intent upon problems of self-government, and intensely 
observant of our continental surroundings; though carried for- 
ward, no doubt, like other ideas in the colonial epoch, by the 
energy and clearer conviction of statesmen who could foresee and 
link conceptions into a logical chain. Neutrality as to European 
affairs, freedom from all entangling alliances with the Old World, 

221 



AMERICANISM 

was the legacy of experience which Washington bequeathed to his 
successors. This might have seemed at first to discourage all 
external influence, and remit our union to the selfish and isolated 
pursuit of its own interests. But the annexation of Louisiana 
proved that the union itself was destined to expand over an uncer- 
tain area of this continent. And, when, inspired by our example, 
the Spanish colonies of the American continent were seen one 
after another to shake off the yoke of the parent country, and 
spontaneously assert their independence, the philanthropic lead- 
ers — and none among them so quickly or so persistently as Jeffer- 
son — began to predict the fraternal cooperation in the future of 
these free republics, all modelled alike, in a common scheme for 
self-presei-vation which should shut out Europe, its rulers and its 
systems of monarchy forever from this hemisphere; for by such 
means only could the gemi of self-government expand, and the 
luxuriant growth of this hardy plant make it impossible that the 
monarchical idea should ever strike a deep root in American soil. 
* * * When liberty struggled in America we were not — we could 
not be — neutral. The time of announcement and the choice of 
expression, nevertheless, awaited events. * " * It was the courage 
of a great people personified in a firm chief magistrate that put 
the fire into those few momentous though moderate sentences, and 
made them glow like the writing at Belshazzar's feast. * * * — 
James Schouler, 1885. 

The years that are before us are a virgin page. We can inscribe 
them as we will. The future of our country rests upon us. The 
happiness of posterity depends on us. The fate of humanity may 
be in our hands. That pleading voice, choked with the sobs of 
ages, which has so often spoken to deaf ears, is lifted up to us. It 
asks us to be brave, benevolent, consistent, true to the teachings 
of our history, proving ''Divine descent by worth divine," It asks 
us to be virtuous, building up public virtue upon private worth; 
seeking that righteousness that exalteth nations. It asks us to be 
patriotic, loving our country before all other things, making her 
happiness our happiness, her honors ours, her fame our own. It 
asks us in the name of charity, in the name of freedom, in the 
name of God! — Heniy Armitt Brown, 

The Monroe Doctrine is a simple and plain statement that the 
people of the United States oppose the creation of European do- 
minion on American soil; that they oppose the transfer of the 
political sovereignty of American soil to European powers; and 
that any attempt to do these things will be regarded as "dangei- 
ous to our peace and safety," What the remedy should be for 
such interposition by European powers the doctiine does not pre- 
tend to state. But this much is certain; that when the people of 

900 



AMERICANISM 

the United States consider anything "dangerous to their peace 
and safety" they will do as other nations do, and, if necessary, 
defend their peace and safety with force of arms. 

The doctrine does not contemplate forcible intervention by the 
United States in any legitimate contest, but it will not permit any 
such contest to result in the increase of European power or influ- 
ence on this continent nor in the overthrow of an existing govern- 
ment, nor in the establishment of a protectorate over them, nor in 
the exercise of any direct control over their policy or institutions. 
Further than this the doctrine does not go. — John Bach McMas- 
ter, 1897. 

Ye sons of Columbia, who bravely have fought 

For those rights, which unstained from your sires have de- 
scended, 
May you long taste the blessings your valor has bought. 
And your sons tread the soil which their fathers defended. 
'Mid the reign of mild peace. 
May your nation increase, 
With the glory of Rome, and the wisdom of Greece; 
And ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves. 
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves. 

Our mountains are crov^^ned with imperial oak. 

Whose roots, like our Kberties, ages have nourished. 
But long ere our nation submits to the yoke. 

Not a tree shall be left on the field where it flourished. 
Should invasion impend. 
Every grove would descend 
From the hill-tops they shaded, our shores to defend. 

Let our patriots destroy Anarch's pestilent worm. 

Lest our liberty's growth should be checked by corrosion ; 
Then let clouds thicken round us ; we heed not the storm ; 
Our realm fears no shock, but the earth's own explosion; 
Foes assail us in vain. 
Though their fleets bridge the main. 
For our altars and laws, with our lives, we'll maintain. 

— Robert Treat Paine, Jr. 

Fellow Citizens: Clouds and darkness are 'round about Him. 
His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds of the sky. Justice 
and judgment are the establishment of His throne. Mercy and 
truth shall go before His face. Fellow Citizens : God reigns, and 
the government at Washington still lives. — James A. Gai-field. 

223 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

Following is the prospectus and platform of The National Republican 
issued upon the removal of the publication to the national capital in 
January, 191S. It will be noted that the policy laid down tor the pub- 
lication at that time has been, followed unswervingly in the editorial 
utterances of the succeeding three years as quoted in the pages of this 
volume. 

A national, weekly, condensed review of public affairs, published from 
the center of national events. 

A mouthpiece of traditional, constructive principles and policies which 
have secured to this republic economic independence, material wealth 
and moral greatness. 

A foe of that revolutionary, unreasoning radicalism, which wovild 
abandon the landmarks of representative government, and risk in aca- 
demic experiment the perpetuity of the great constitutional system 
under which this nation, has enjoyed a century and a third of orderly, 
progressive government, safeguarding those rights of person and prop- 
erty for the preservation of which, as essential to human happiness, 
governn^ents are instituted among men. It stands for the perfecting, 
rather than the destruction, of that system. 

An enemy of socialism, anarchism and bolshevism, whether open or 
covert, in public or private life. 

An advocate of industrial peace, through justice to all elements of 
American citizenship, and the overthrow of demagogism, with its appeals 
to class prejudice and hatred; to envy and cupidity, to laziness and dis- 
loyalty, to indifference and inefficiency. 

A preacher of the duties as well as the rights of American citizen- 
slfip; its obligations, as well as its opportunities. 

'An antidote for that vast volume of socialistic and anarchistic agita- 
tion which is flooding the country, polluting public sentiment, under- 
mrning the faith of the people in the historic fundamentals of Amer- 
icanism, destroying the industrial and political efTiciency of the American 
people, and tending to establish in this country, in place of just and 
judicious government, that irresponsible usurpation of power by class- 
conscious groups which has hurled Russia from the extreme of autoc- 
racy to that of anarchy and wiped it from the map of the world as a 
power. 

A champion of a stalwart, unwavering Americanism, which at all 
times and everywhere throughout the world stands for the protection 
of lives and rights of American citizens, on sea or land, on this and 
other continents; which is for America hrst, last and all the time, and 
would sacrifice no just interest of the American people in behalf of 
any visionary scheme of internationalism; which will devote itself in 
domestic legislation and administration, and in its diplomacy, to the 
welfare of America and Americans, backing its words with deeds, and 
commanding respect for itself in both hemispheres by deserving, firmly 
demanding and promptly enforcing that respect where it is not volun- 
tarilv yielded. 

A propagandist of preparedness for war in time of peace, and for 
peace in time of war; for the protection of the American people against 
the invasion of arms and the invasion of foreign competitors armed with 
the weapon of a cheapness attained through the sacrifice! of human 
values. 

A foe of sectionalism, of political division based upon class or occupa- 
tional self-interest, of corruption and intimidation, of the use of great 
government agencies having the power of life and death over industry, 
for personal and partisan purposes. 

An advocate of the doing, by parties, party leaders and individuals, 
in all matters affecting the public interest, of that which is morally and 
intellectuallv safe and right, rather than the merely expedient thing. 

A believer in the Republican party as the natural conservator and 
administrator of the fundamental traditions and doctrines of historic 
Americanism, laboring, as the organ of no feud, faction or individual, 
for the upbuilding of that party, from without and within, as an essen- 
tial instrumentality for the preservation and progress of the republic 
in whose history it has written so many splendid pages, and, if true to 
its traditions, will write many more. 



:5 



c 



^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 900 762 1 






|_i ""\ ; - 





